WASHINGTON, DC – The National Association of Manufacturers issued a curt response to a Chinese official’s view that countries consuming manufactured goods should be responsible for the emissions caused by their manufacture. 

The unnamed official said the onus for emissions should be on consumers, not the countries that actually produced them. 

In response, NAM executive vice president Jay Timmons said, in a statement, “It’s called ‘global warming,’ not ‘American warming,’ for a reason. Clearly, the producers of the emissions are the only ones that can take the steps and apply the technologies that will actually result in emissions reductions.  

“The global environment and economy will not benefit if major stakeholder countries take pollution-reducing actions that drive up their costs while others do not. Such a situation risks merely reducing production in the countries taking action and shifting to higher-pollution production in countries that take little or no action, a scenario that results in economic harm to the US and no reduction in emissions.”  

NAM supports the rules-based trading system, and welcomes that the recently released Obama Administration trade policy affirms this, Timmons said. The US “should take no actions that would violate its international obligations or trigger a debilitating trade war. Others need to affirm the same.  “Any measures to address global climate change must involve the US and China working together for a realistic solution that does not threaten our national security and impose unbearable economic costs.” 

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