Trade barriers like the ones announced this week by US President Donald Trump are the “wrong tool for driving economic growth”, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.
Ben Backwell, GWEC CEO said: “Fair and transparent trade is essential to achieving the goals of the global energy transition and delivering long term economic benefits and prosperity.
The majority of countries want to avoid a trade war, which GWEC research shows would result in slower wind market growth, higher wind energy costs and lower financial sustainability for the wind sector.”
Backwell added that the International Energy Agency last year estimated import tariffs and non-tariff measures accounted for 9% of the cost of a wind nacelle.
“This moment instead calls for the co-ordinated development of trade-friendly industrialisation policies, which create positive market conditions for wind power to grow and generate local industrial economies of scale,” Backwell added, and said that such an approach will help balance fair trade practices with incentive-driven industrial relocation policies.
“The wind industry will continue to work with governments, institutions and the private sector to deliver enabling policy that drives sustainable growth through strategic collaboration, global competitiveness and non-restrictive and trade-friendly measures,” Backwell said.