Ex President Lagos predicts emergence of ecological trade barriers

GENEVA.- Former President and special UN representative on Climate Change, Ricardo Lagos, announced a prediction today that industrialized countries could begin to impose “green” trade barriers as part of a future strategy to combat climate change.

Lagos maintained that rich countries could establish a tax on imports directly linked to contamination levels generated by their production.

“There will be a green (trade) barrier, so if developing countries want to sell their products, they will have to prove that they have taken measures to prevent their production process from increasing contamination levels”, he explained.

In order to do this, Lagos indicated that he believes it is crucial for developing countries to participate in negotiations aimed at adopting an international agreement next year in Copenhagen, so that their voice can be heard and so that “regulations that they did not help to design are not imposed upon them”.