Which do you think has higher priority? The Financial Times reports,
A European summit agreed to toughen regulations against old-fashioned incandescent bulbs by 2009 as part of a bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But earlier in the week officials from trade ministries rebuffed attempts by the European Commission to end five-year-old surcharges on imports of energy-efficient bulbs from China.
The 66 per cent duty was imposed in 2002 after European manufacturers complained of dumping by the Chinese. It expires in October but Siemens of Germany, which owns the Osram brand, is pushing for an extension. The other big makers, Philips of the Netherlands, which pays a 33 per cent tariff, and GE of the US, disagree. Ending the duty would cut prices to the level of conventional bulbs.
Tim Worstall provided the pointer.
The U.S. version of this is our restrictions on imported sugar, which otherwise might be used to reduce the cost of ethanol.
READER COMMENTS
isonomist
Mar 13 2007 at 8:23am
Note also that while patents on compact fluorescents have mostly expired, Philips still has the patents on compact fluorescents that are “dimmable” (that is, can be used in combination with conventional light dimmers.)
Matt
Mar 13 2007 at 1:38pm
What are the most efficient smuggling routes into Europe?
Mike
Mar 15 2007 at 4:56am
Perhaps you have already seen this Channel 4 Documentary on Global Warming. If not, it’s worth a look. Tim Ball, Nigel Calder, John Cristy, Richard Lindzen, Fred Singer, Patrick Michaels, Ian Clark, and so on and so forth. A lot of the big names are there in one place.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831&q=Great+Global+Warming+Swindle
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