Trump pressure helps kill U.N. shipping tax — for now | EDITORIAL | Editorials

The United States earned its independence by fighting a war to protest various indignities imposed by the crown, including levies that prompted the colonist slogan “taxation without representation.” Those at the United Nations seeking to implement a global money grab through shipping taxes might be wise to re-examine history.

Last week, the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization tabled a proposal to create a global tax on carbon emissions derived from international maritime activity. The plan, which would raise up to $15 billion annually, was hatched by European nations and Brazil under the guise of fighting global warming by getting the maritime sector down to “net zero” by 2050. Three percent of climate change, the IMO maintains, is attributable to global shipping.

But the proposal met fierce resistance from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. Mr. Trump threatened to retaliate against countries that supported the tax and to withhold U.S. funding from the United Nations if it enacted the plan. In advance of the tabled vote, the president took to social media to declare that the United States would “not stand for this global green new scam tax on shipping and will not adhere to it in any way, shape or form.”

Good. The tax would represent a massive drag on global commerce and would burden American consumers with billions in higher costs despite never having been approved by any of their elected representatives in Washington. Taxation without representation, indeed. The net-zero pipe dream is an economic albatross that undercuts markets in favor or bureaucratic central planning and has already crippled the European Union. Mr. Trump did the Europeans a favor, saving them from themselves.

But while the United Nations has backed off for now, the measure will be on the table again sometime next year. Enter Rep. August Pfluger, a Texas Republican, who proposes legislation to ensure that the United States not be subject to a U.N. tax or penalty unless the Senate approves such a measure. It will also block voluntary U.S. contributions to the United Nations if the organization levies a carbon tax on shipping.

“This legislation,” Rep. Pfluger told Fox News last week, “would kill their global carbon tax scheme permanently by depriving all U.S. funding to any U.N. agency that attempts to impose a tax on the American people and ensuring Congress has a say in all taxes, fees and penalties on American citizens or companies.”

Rep. Pfluger’s legislation protects Americans from overreaching U.N. bureaucrats. Congress should pass his bill once the government shutdown ends.