BEIJING, July 15, 2009 (AFP) – China said Wednesday it was against proposals to impose “carbon tariffs” on goods manufactured in the developing world, saying such moves were a pretext for trade protectionism.

Any such laws, which have been proposed in the United States and France, would breach World Trade Organization rules, said Yao Jian, a Chinese commerce ministry spokesman.

“Behind such a policy, there is an attempt to impose trade protectionism under the name of environmental and resource protection,” Yao told reporters.

The U.S. House of Representatives last month passed a bill that could allow import taxes on products made in countries that do not have statutory curbs on greenhouse-gas emissions, such as China.

Some richer nations argue its industries are being punished by tough domestic environmental laws, which encourage the shift of polluting industries to countries with less stringent controls.

Yao said the proposal also violated the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol, which says that developing countries do not have to set specific limits on greenhouse-gas emissions.

“Therefore China is opposed to this policy,” he said. “Our main concern is that the implementation of this policy will damage developing countries’ interests.”

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, who is on a three-day visit to China with Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, was due to meet Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming on Wednesday.

Yao said the carbon tariffs issue would be one of the topics of the meeting.

“We would like to see fair and reasonable [international] trade policies that will help the normal development of trade, not more trade protectionism measures,” he said.