Resource information
The fact that developing countries do
not have carbon emission caps under the Kyoto Protocol has
led to the current interest in high-income countries in
border taxes on the "virtual" carbon content of
imports. The authors use Global Trade Analysis Project data
and input-output analysis to estimate the flows of virtual
carbon implicit in domestic production technologies and the
pattern of international trade. The results present striking
evidence on the wide variation in the carbon-intensiveness
of trade across countries, with major developing countries
being large net exporters of virtual carbon. The analysis
suggests that tax rates of $50 per ton of virtual carbon
could lead to very substantial effective tariff rates on the
exports of the most carbon-intensive developing nations.
