Effect of a European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on the APAC Region: A structural gravity analysis

To address concerns over carbon leakage, the European Union (EU) has announced the introduction of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). This study applies a structural gravity model to simulate the impact of CBAM on welfare, production, exports and emissions with a focus on four sectors: chemicals, iron and steel, non-ferrous metal and metal products. We also provide country-specific results for the Asian and the Pacific regions. Our results show that, while CBAM would have little effect on welfare, the policy would contribute to a reduction in exports, estimated between -0.29% (metal products) and -1.49% (iron and steel). In particular, we find that middle income economies are most affected by the policy, and that these countries tend to greatly reduce their exports to the EU. We also observe a rebound in production (and associated emissions) among the EU economies. Nevertheless, by including emissions from shipping activities, CBAM can result in a large decrease in emissions, most of which is due to export reduction.