US pushes for low-carbon technology trade deal

Reports have emerged that the US is pushing for a commitment to liberalise trade in low-carbon products and services as one of the desired outcomes from the Copenhagen Summit.

Carol Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative's office, told Reuters that the US believed that removing tariffs and other trade barriers on green products would help accelerate the global rollout of technologies that serve to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

"We would be interested in early action on climate-friendly technologies," she said. "We are discussing this possibility with other countries."

Previous efforts to remove tariffs on environmental goods and services have become embroiled in the eight-year-old Doha trade talks. However, some diplomats believe the Copenhagen Summit offers the opportunity for a separate agreement on a small number of low-carbon products that could then serve to kick-start the Doha negotiations on green trade barriers.

Jeremy Preiss, vice president and chief international trade counsel for United Technologies and a member of the National Foreign Trade Council, said that the Obama administration recognised the need for a deal and that there was growing optimism that negotiations would begin soon.

The failure to reach an international deal to liberalise trade in clean technologies, either through the Copenhagen talks or as part of a separate deal, could have serious repercussions for low-carbon businesses, particularly given that protectionist measures are already beginning to characterise the sector.

China and a number of other countries have infuriated leading manufacturers of wind turbines and solar panels with the adoption of a "Buy Domestic" policies for low-carbon infrastructure projects, while developing nations are equally concerned about clauses within the proposed US climate bill that would allow for so-called carbon tariffs to be levelled on imports from countries without binding emission reduction targets.

Meanwhile, an administration official told the Associated Press yesterday that President Obama is to meet with Al Gore at the White House on Monday as he prepares to fly to Copenhagen for the final days of the summit. He is also expected to meet with key environmental and business leaders next Wednesday before appearing at the summit on 18 December.

The news came as former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin called on Obama to boycott the summit, arguing that the so-called "climategate" affair "obviously calls into question the proposals being pushed in Copenhagen" . Writing in the Washington Post, the controversial former governor of Alaska also slammed Obama's "cap-and-tax plans", predicting they would raise energy prices and "outsource" US energy supplies to China, Russia and Saudi Arabia.