EU ‘twists Korea’s arm’ over fuel standards

[mailchimp_signup][/mailchimp_signup]The trade deal is described as the most far-reaching bilateral free trade deal ever signed by the EU, but European car makers had been unhappy with a Korean plan for new fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide limits for new cars that would have been equivalent to 150g of CO₂ per kilometre. Those standards have now been relaxed, but Green MEPs voted against the trade deal saying the EU had ‘twisted Korea’s arm’ over the relaxation. T&E director Jos Dings said: ‘There is a terrible irony here – it was the original EU voluntary agreement to limit CO₂ emissions to 140g by 2009 that got South Korea reducing its emissions, and now the EU has put pressure on Korea to relax standards it helped establish.’