The spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce answers questions from reporters on the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism

Q: The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will officially come into effect on January 1, 2026. The EU has recently released a series of legislative proposals and implementation details related to CBAM. What is the comment of the Ministry of Commerce on this?

Answer: China has noticed that the EU has recently released a series of legislative proposals and implementation details related to CBAM, including setting default carbon emission intensity values and plans to expand product coverage. Among them, the European side ignores the huge achievements of China's green and low-carbon development, sets significantly higher basic default values for the carbon emission intensity of Chinese products, and will increase them year by year in the next three years. This is not in line with China's current actual level and future development trend, and constitutes unfair and discriminatory treatment towards China. The actions taken by the European side not only violate the principles of "most favored nation treatment" and "national treatment" of the World Trade Organization, but also contradict the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The EU has also proposed a legislative draft that plans to expand the scope of CBAM to include approximately 180 steel aluminum intensive downstream products, such as machinery and equipment, automobiles and their components, and household appliances, starting from 2028. These rule designs have gone beyond the scope of addressing climate change and carry obvious unilateralism and trade protectionism. China expresses serious concern and firm opposition to this.

The Chinese side also noted that the European Union recently revised the 2035 ban on new fuel vehicles and relaxed green regulations within the EU. On the one hand, the European side engages in protectionism under the guise of green on the outside, while on the other hand, it relaxes regulation internally and reduces emission reduction requirements. This contradictory approach is a typical double standard.

The European side ignores historical emission responsibilities, national development stages, and technological levels, and promotes new trade protectionism under the guise of preventing "carbon leakage", imposing its own carbon standards on developing countries, causing conflicts between climate and trade governance rules, raising the cost of climate action for developing countries, seriously damaging international trust, and going against the efforts of all parties to cooperate in addressing climate change and promoting sustainable development. We hope that the European side will abide by international rules related to climate and trade, abandon unilateralism and protectionism, maintain market openness, and promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in the green sector based on the principles of fairness, science, and non discrimination. China is willing to work together with Europe to address the challenges of global climate change, but will resolutely take all necessary measures to respond to any unfair trade restrictions, safeguard its own development interests, the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, and the stability of the global industrial and supply chains.