See this post by Josh Margolis: on social media

Frans Timmermans, head of climate for the EU: The EU will do nothing that is in violation of World Trade Organisation rules and CBAM — characterized by India as a carbon import tax of 25 to 30% on high carbon goods such as steel, cement, aluminum, iron, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen — will not have any negative effect on the EU’s trade relationship with India.

If India fulfills all its ambitions in terms of greening the economy and reducing the carbon footprint and creating comparable footprints to the EU, there is no worry that CBAM will have a negative effect on our trade relationship.

And if India makes progress, as it is doing now, into the direction of having a carbon footprint that is comparable to that of EU producers in these five areas, then India will be under CBAM, but it will not face any penalties. It is the comparability of carbon footprint that counts.

We will have this trial period (October 2023 to December 2025) that will allow us to see whether there are undesired effects, then we can correct it… And we will be in very close contact with India to see what the effects are. Let’s not make any assumptions on levies and cost for Indian businesses.

It’s much too early to say that. Let’s use the instrument we have now, the India-EU Trade and Technology Council, to have a constant dialogue about this and to at least have enough early warning signals.

Timmermans