There are plans to extend the scope of the European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to cover over 400 additional types of steel and aluminium imports. In this way, the EU aims to close loopholes that allow carbon duties to be circumvented.
This was reported by the Financial Times.
Decarbonising industry is quite costly for European businesses. This move is therefore driven by a desire to support the competitiveness of domestic companies against imports from countries where climate policy is not as stringent.
In general, the CBAM mechanism came into effect on 1 January 2026. It obliges importers of steel, iron, aluminium, fertilisers, cement and hydrogen to pay for CO2 emissions caused by the production of these goods.
Expanded list of goods
As early as last year, the European Commission proposed including 180 product types in the CBAM list. This refers to goods with a significant metal content. In particular, this concerns garden tools, washing machines, and forklift trucks. At the initiative of EU countries, an additional 200 products were added to the list.
According to preliminary estimates, additional duties under CBAM will annually apply to products valued at about €160 billion.
The EU believes this will prevent importers from circumventing emission payments simply by reprocessing metal into other finished goods.
The expanded list of products subject to CBAM is expected to come into force in 2028. However, this decision must first be approved by the European Parliament.
“This is really great news for strengthening the level playing field. Industry has rightly asked for these fundamental changes. We are moving quickly to implement them,” said European Commissioner for Climate Policy Wopke Hoekstra in a statement to the Financial Times.
Criticism from abroad
The carbon duty has sparked a wave of indignation from countries exporting their products to the EU. In their view, CBAM primarily puts pressure on poorer countries. Instead of obtaining their own resources for decarbonization, they are forced, due to the duty, to leave part of their income in Europe. Such a position was, in particular, expressed by Mozambique, which depends on aluminum trade with the EU.
As previously reported by EcoPolitic, due to CBAM, Ukrainian metallurgy has already lost from 17% to 93% of its exports in the first quarter of 2026.
