Goyal reiterates India will retaliate against carbon tax

The Hindu

06-05-2025

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal once again warned that India would retaliate with taxes of its own if Europe goes ahead with its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) plan.
The CBAM is basically a mechanism through which European countries would impose a carbon tax on select imports.
'If they put in a carbon tax, we will retaliate,' Mr. Goyal said, while speaking at the 2025 Columbia India Energy Dialogue, hosted by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. 'They will put it on products that will hurt their economy and the retaliation will be on products which will further hurt their economy.'
Mr. Goyal has previously — as far back as 2023, for example — also spoken about how India would retaliate to CBAM.
'India has contributed to only 3-3.5% of the carbon emissions,' he said on Tuesday. 'We support 17% of the world population. Yet, if we are going to be asked to contribute at the same level as a European company, I think that is going to be patently unfair, improper and irregular.'
However, at a time when India has successfully concluded a Free Trade Agreement with the United Kingdom on Tuesday, Mr. Goyal painted a fairly rosy picture of the trade talks with the U.S. and Europe as well.
'Trade talks with Europe are continuing well and are separate from climate issues,' he said, adding that talks with the U.S. are 'going fabulously well'. India is in talks with both regions to conclude trade agreements with each.