Later this week the United Nations will hold a vote on a multibillion-dollar climate change tax targeted squarely at American industry. 

Without quick and decisive action by the White House, this UN tax on fossil fuels will become international law.

This resolution before the International Maritime Organization would impose a carbon tax on cargo and cruise ships that carry $20 trillion of merchandise over international waters. Roughly 80 percent of the bulkage of world trade is transported by ship.

The resolution is intended to advance the very “net zero” carbon emissions standard that has kneecapped European economies for years and that American voters have rejected.

This international tax would be applied to American vessels and as such is a dangerous, precedent-setting assault on the United States’s sovereignty. Since when are American businesses subject to international taxes imposed by the UN?

The American maritime industry believes the global tax would cost American shippers more than $100 billion over the next seven years if enacted.

Worst of all, if the resolution passes, it will require the retirement of older ships and enable a multibillion-dollar wealth transfer to Communist China — which has come to dominate ship building in recent years. 

China STRONGLY supports the tax scheme — even though, ironically, no nation has emitted more pollutants into the atmosphere than it has. Yet WE are getting socked with a tax that indirectly pays for THEIR pollution.

Secretaries Marco Rubio, Chris Wright, and Sean Duffy have jointly stated that America “will not accept any international environmental agreement that unduly or unfairly burdens the United States or our businesses.” 

They call the financial impact on America of this global carbon tax “disastrous, with some estimates forecasting global shipping costs increasing as much as 10 percent or more.”

The American maritime industry complains that although American vessels carry only about 12 percent of the globally shipped merchandise, United States flag vessels would bear almost 20 percent of this tax. 

No wonder China and Europe are for it. Even though America’s economy is roughly the size of Europe’s, the European Union nations get 17 “yes” votes to swamp the one “no” vote out of Washington.

To prevent this sinister tax, the White House should announce a set of retaliation measures. This could include a dollar-for-dollar reduction in American payments to NATO, the UN, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. No foreign money should be directed to any nation that votes for this assault on American ships.

At a time when financial markets are reeling from trade and tariff disputes, the last thing the world — least of all the United States — needs is a UN excise tax on trade.

Creators.com