Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, joined Larry Kudlow on Fox Business to discuss his Wall Street Journal op-ed on the European Union’s (EU) carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) agreement. Excerpts and full video are below.
On the EU’s Carbon Border Tax:
“Europe has been going down this unilateral path for some time. During the pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine, several [EU] leaders have come to my office, including the European Union’s Commissioner of Energy [and] some of the negotiators. I told them if you’d slow down the CBAM, help us catch up and work with you, then you’d have a multi-continental alliance where we can do some trade together based on our excellence rather than on somebody else’s mediocrity. I think that there’s a way to do this that Bob Lighthizer would be proud of, that Donald Trump would be proud of, that I think the Chamber of Commerce and the Club for Growth would be proud of – and that is an America First border adjustment mechanism that recognizes America’s excellence.”
On An America First Climate and Trade Policy:
“Our businesses are already disadvantaged because of our excellence, because we have higher [pollution, environmental, workplace, salary and wage] standards. We shouldn’t punished for that again by the European Union, rather they should join us and punish the really bad guys like China and Russia.”
“Keep it simple, Larry. One of the things about these trade deals and Congress and this whole town in general is that we complicate simple things. But if you have a border adjustment mechanism that recognizes the most carbon-intensive industries like steel, aluminum, cement, and [the] generation of energy itself. Let’s pick those things that are highly intensive, have a measurement that every American company already meets, by the way, because of our standards, and so do most European companies. So right out of the chute, you have equity that rewards our excellence and disadvantages our adversaries instead of our allies.”
“The moment we have in front of us is a moment where I think we could be doing some deals if we would be meeting their needs and then putting a little extra pressure on them.”