Climate deal failure could cause tariff war: Garnaut

The head of the Federal Government's climate change review, Ross Garnaut, warned that Australia was likely to face a world tariff war driven by Europe and the US over greenhouse gas emissions unless there was a strong global agreement to prevent climate change.

"We've had the Energy Secretary in the United States speaking favourably about additional import duties on products from countries that aren't doing enough on climate change. That echoes a very strong sentiment from the US Congress," said Professor Garnaut at the Greenhouse 2009 conference in Perth yesterday.
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He said the debate in Australia had recently been disproportionately claimed by "the private interest, the ignorant, the myopic and the excessive".

Asked to explain whom he meant, Professor Garnaut said: "There is no need to name names. One can recognise ignorance when one sees it. This is a complex issue and people need to invest some time and intellectual effort in understanding it."

Nice headline: "Green pressure grows for cow flatulence tax" - Scotsman.com Business

Washington Times - The Mexican-American War of 2009

Unfortunately, the Mexican trade war looks to just be the beginning of a long list of trade problems being created by the Obama administration. The administration is moving toward a trade war with China to enforce its views on global warming. And the misnamed "Stimulus" package included a "Buy American" provision that rankles other countries.

Wasn't Mr. Obama going to be the "international" president who was going to get the rest of the world to love us? The path to improving relations does not involve destroying jobs in other countries as well as in our own.