India rallies 30 other nations vs EU airline emission tax

Manila: India is working with more than 30 nations to draw up a strategy to counter the European Union’s plan to impose emission charges on airlines flying into the region starting next year.
“How can they dictate terms to us and why should we accept it?” Vayalar Ravi, India’s civil aviation minister, said in an interview in New Delhi Saturday before a meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization on the EU’s plan. “This is their fantasy.”
Measures by the 27-nation bloc to impose carbon curbs on flights to and from the region have sparked protests from China’s airline association and carriers including American Airlines and Continental Airlines. The EU plans “contravene” international law and “is an attack on sovereignty,” the International Air Transport Association said this week.
More than 30 members of the International Civil Aviation Organization started their meeting on the EU’s emission trading system in India’s capital Sunday. The Montreal-based ICAO has 190 member states, including the U.S. and China, according to its website. India’s aviation ministry is hosting the two-day meeting, Ravi said, without naming the countries that are participating.
01/09/11 Karthikeyan Sundaram/mb.co.ph

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2011, Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2011