US trade representative Susan Schwab has said that climate change should not be used as an excuse for protectionism.
She was speaking in Brussels after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said a European tax could Football: Benitez talks 'amicable' ...
EU-India talks follow China visit ... be imposed on states that refused to cap carbon emissions.
Ms Schwab said the United States had been "dismayed" at climate being used as a reason to close markets.
Speaking alongside her, EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson agreed restrictions were not the way forward.
"They're not cost efficient, they carry a risk of retaliation, they would result in increasing cost for European industry at large," he said.
Ms Schwab also remarked on a World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute surrounding European resistance to genetically modified organisms.
Although the United States has suspended its right to retaliate while the EU attempts to lift a ban on biotech products, she criticised attitudes in Europe.
"Using bad science to make trade policy decisions is certainly a practice that would come back to haunt all of us in other countries," she said.
(BBC)
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