| It is hard to find many critics in Brussels of the EU’s new carbon levy that came into force in October. The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is one of the few major pieces of law passed by Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission that secured cross-party support in the European Parliament. Outside the bubble, however, it is a very different story. The levy might be aimed primarily at China and Russia but the likes of India and African states, with whom the EU wants to have closer political relations, will also be hit. Indeed, India and South Africa have led the international opposition to CBAM, lodging claims at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that CBAM breaches the WTO’s non-discrimination principle. EU officials insist that the phase-out of free allowances to EU firms means that it is WTO compliant. But antagonising natural allies with CBAM, rather than encouraging them to adopt similar schemes, was clumsy politics. If the EU had wanted to use CBAM as a means of being a global rule-setter and maker it should have consulted with third countries before setting the legislation in stone. | 
