The European Commission kept its carbon border tax unchanged in a fertiliser plan announced on Tuesday meant to support struggling farmers, despite complaints that carbon pricing is also contributing prices amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Fertiliser producers argue that the bloc's carbon pricing rules at the border protect the European industry from cheaper imports produced under weaker environmental rules, since the rules oblige EU exporters to pay for the pollution linked to their production. But farmers fear they are indirectly paying the bill through higher fertiliser costs.
European Commissioner for Agriculture Christophe Hansen said that scrapping the bloc's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which would apply to roughly 45% of EU fertiliser imports, would be a "false good idea" citing competitiveness issues.
"We have a domestic industry for fertilisers in several member states which are under pressure because they're dealing with a situation of unfair competition coming from third countries if CBAM is not in place," Hansen told reporters.
With the new plan, the European Commission is seeking to defend the bloc's flagship carbon border policy while acknowledging that climate costs are increasingly being passed through to farmers and food prices.
