‘Assault On American Sovereignty’: Red State Officials Urge Trump To Probe EU’s Corporate Climate Mandates

Twenty-six financial officials from 21 states wrote to President Donald Trump on Tuesday urging him and his administration to review European Union (EU) climate rules applying to U.S. companies operating in Europe as part of his wider reassessment of trade relationships with other countries.

The financial officials asked Trump to have the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) open a probe of several EU rules that they say give European regulators too much discretion over the operations of U.S. companies doing business on the continent. They argue in their letter that the EU’s climate mandates have impacts that undermine their ability to protect the finances and investments of their own states. They also say that the Trump administration should consider reviewing those mandates in light of Trump’s executive order to reassess international environmental deals that “unduly or unfairly burden the United States.”

“While EU member states are key American trading partners and geopolitical allies, this partnership cannot come at the cost of subjecting American companies to unbounded regulatory requirements that will only weaken the economies of both Europe and the United States,” the letter reads. “By reaching into domestic business operations, the directives serve as a direct assault on American sovereignty.”

Red State Officials’ Letter re: EU Rules by Nick Pope on Scribd