The redoubtable Stephen Moore brings to light this little bit of internationalist skulduggery,:
Later this week the United Nations will hold a vote on a multibillion-dollar climate change tax targeted squarely at American industry.
This resolution before the International Maritime Organization will impose a carbon tax on cargo and cruise ships that carry $20 trillion of merchandise over international waters.
The resolution is intended to advance the very “net zero” carbon emissions standard that has knee-capped European economies for years and that American voters have rejected.
This international tax that would be applied to American vessels and as such is a dangerous precedent-setting assault on U.S. sovereignty.
As with all great crimes, the first question is “cui bono” ? And to nobody’s surprise, the answer is:
Worst of all, if the resolution passes, it will require the retirement of older ships and enable a multibillion-dollar wealth transfer to 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.
Needless to say, the U.S. will have no truck with this nonsense — at least, the current generation of U.S. leaders won’t:
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and U.S. Secretary of Transportation 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 the U.S. of this global carbon tax “disastrous, with some estimates forecasting global shipping costs increasing as much as 10% or more.”
So fine. But given that in the United Nations, there are seventeen likely “yes” votes to our single “no” vote, how are we to combat this nonsense? As usual, Moore has the answer:
To prevent this sinister tax, the White House should announce a set of retaliation measures.
This could include a dollar-for-dollar reduction in U.S. payments to NATO, the U.N., IMF and World Bank. No foreign money should be directed to any nation that votes for this assault on American ships.
And as the old (paraphrased) saying goes: “They may have passed this law; now let them enforce it.”
My additional solution would be for the United States to leave the U.N. altogether, cease its funding thereof, and kick these assholes out of Manhattan for good. Let them play their little reindeer games all they want, just in someone else’s backyard and with their own money. See how long that little internationalist dream lasts.
BOOT . THE . UN
They have no jurisdiction and serve only as a childish distraction.
Kick all the foreigners out, cancel their diplomatic immunity, tear down the building, then salt the fucking earth beneath it. Cancel all payments and forever renounce our membership. That includes NATO, UN, IMF, and World Bank as well as all subsidiaries of the above four institutions. Fuck them all.
// tear down the building//
Naah, the neighborhood needs some low-rent apartment housing. Nice view of Brooklyn.
.
PRIME location for a homeless shelter.
“… global shipping costs increasing as much as 10% or more.”
Once established by a vote, subsequent “votes” will only be in the direction of “up”.
No matter what Trump would do to fight this would be undone by the Democrats in Congress when they steal a majority again. (In the meantime, there’s always some piss ant District Judge telling him he can’t do that.)
Most obvious way to enforce it is for other countries to ban any ship for which the ransom (because that’s what it is) has not been paid.
That’d be relatively easy to implement for most countries that have actual border agencies, and would effectively leave the entire US shipping industry restricted to sailing between US ports only and maybe ports in places like Somalia and Angola.
Of course the US can retaliate and only allow ships in that have NOT had the ransom paid, but that’d pretty much make it impossible to import the massive amounts of cheap Chinese junk that the country is so addicted to.
Whatever happens though, it’d be a far worse trade war than the Trump tariffs have sparked already.
And oh, I’d not be at all surprised if China has written an exemption for itself into those treaties, as they have with most other “climate” treaties.
The only reason to remain in the UN is to wreck their policies and demands. Vote with the United States or face drastic sanctions.