From the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement to MARPOL Annex VI, the United Nations has a troubling track record of advancing harmful climate frameworks that sideline American interests. The United States should not tolerate yet another radical agreement that puts global bureaucracy ahead of our economic security.
Earlier this month, a group of unelected international bureaucrats at the International Maritime Organization, the U.N. body overseeing international shipping, nearly imposed a costly global carbon tax on the world. The IMO scheduled an Oct. 17 vote to adopt a “net zero framework” for the shipping industry, a measure that would have dealt serious blows to American commerce.
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This global carbon tax would have increased shipping costs by up to 10%. More than 80% of global trade moves by sea, including critical items such as food, fuel, medicine, and industrial goods, and these costs would ripple through our entire economy. This framework would significantly burden commerce, harm consumers, and erase the historic economic improvements President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have secured to ease runaway inflation from the Biden-Harris era.
The framework would have also handed China a massive competitive advantage. China’s shipbuilding industry dwarfs the United States’s in both military and commercial sectors. A single Chinese shipyard can outproduce every American shipyard combined. We have not produced more commercial shipping tonnage than China in a single year since World War II, a gap driven by higher labor costs, diminished shipyard capacity, and mounting federal regulations. By creating unprecedented demand for new vessels, this framework would have channeled billions to Chinese shipyards while further weakening American shipbuilding.
Taxes and fees collected under this framework would flow to the IMO Net-Zero Fund, controlled by a governing board with no accountability to American taxpayers. These funds would subsidize low-emission ships, drive more business to China, bankroll initiatives in developing countries, and support the IMO’s radical Greenhouse Gas Strategy, which mandates at least 40% reductions in emissions from international shipping by 2030. American dollars would disappear into this fund with no tangible benefit to our nation.
This costly and burdensome carbon tax would also disrupt supply chains and consumer access to vital goods. Every corner of the globe experienced disruptions in the production and delivery of goods during the pandemic, and this framework would guarantee that those problems become permanent fixtures of global commerce.
Trump and his administration, led by Cabinet Secretaries Marco Rubio, Chris Wright, and Sean Duffy, took decisive action to counter this radical agenda, including by providing possible supporting nations a menu of retaliatory options: visa restrictions, financial penalties, port fees, investigations, regulations, and sanction evaluations. The president’s immediate, no-holds-barred response made clear that the U.S. will not be unduly or unfairly burdened by IMO overreach.
Thankfully, the IMO heeded warnings from the Trump administration and postponed the vote to adopt the global carbon tax by one year. While this decision provided immediate relief to the industry, there is an urgent need for congressional action to provide permanent clarity and ensure the tax is never resurrected. Time is of the essence, as the IMO is already undertaking active discussions to expand the scope of the framework to smaller oceangoing ships.
I am introducing the UNtaxed Act to block permanently the implementation of the tax. The legislation takes three critical steps.
First, it affirms that Senate approval is required before the U.N. or any of its affiliated bodies can impose penalties or taxes on U.S. citizens or companies. Americans did not vote to elect the IMO’s assembly or its council and have no means to hold its members accountable.
Second, it prohibits funding for contributions to the U.N. or any affiliated body seeking to impose a global carbon tax. As the largest U.N. contributor, the U.S. should never bankroll organizations that undermine American commerce and taxpayers.
Third, it permanently defunds U.S. implementation and enforcement of a global carbon tax. If the net-zero framework is ever adopted, its enforcement is the responsibility of the member states, in their capacity as flag, port, or coastal states. This legislation would prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to comply with this ludicrous ruling, a vital backstop.
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The people have spoken clearly: They want transformative change that restores American dominance on the world stage and unleashes economic potential. This ill-conceived global carbon tax represents a blatant abuse of power that would have severely damaged American commerce had Trump and his administration not intervened.
The UNtaxed Act is an extension of Trump’s leadership in stopping unelected international bureaucrats from dictating the terms of American commerce. Congressional intervention is not only justified. It is long overdue.
August Pfluger represents Texas’s 11th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and is chairman of the Republican Study Committee.
