That gets tricky - how much carbon was used in manufacturing an iPhone, a toy truck or that shrimp of questionable origin from a fast food place?
Every participant in that chain has an incentive to under-report their emission to make the final price more palatable. The larger the manufacturing sector, the larger the incentive to under-report and cover up any issues at the national level.
That way local manufacturers aren’t being penalized, while foreign manufacturers can still be more competitive because of lower labour costs. Levelling the playing field.
We can't even do with money ie where it really matters. There are no real generally accepted accounting practices in large swaths of the world. And even then - things get tricky and ambiguous.
No - just tax the fuel and that's it. The fuel gets a harmonisation if it's taxed somewhere else and coming into the country and that's that.
I agree fuel taxes are best. But the issue remains - how will you know that the manufacturer is buying taxed fuel (not black-market, untaxed oil, or untaxed oil that China is importing from Venezuela with a bilateral agreement)? Inspections.
It would be complicated, but the West (US + EU + the rest) are big and powerful enough to make it happen.
The US/EU could feasibly make some kind of trade pact, whereby producers are required to indicate the carbon used in each product, but there is no feasible way to oversee it.
COVID masks are literally being made by people in 're-education jail' in China. Safety and operational standards in many parts of the world are simply non-existent.
How does it work with fossil fuels refined in Middle East and delivered to China?"
Because all goods and services are in a value chain.
A 'carbon tax' at the end point of consumption would be like a VAT. If carbon is used in the making of it, then it's X% tax.
That will definitely have an effect on wherever the carbon comes from.
A much, much easier and better form of carbon tax would not be a VAT, but just a tax on the fuel.
So basically just a fuel tax would effectively 'price the carbon in' to products.
If it's a huge tax, then shipping by air because way more expensive, you'll see goods shipped more by sea.
If shipping by sea is too expensive, you'll see goods made more locally.
So it's best to just capture the carbon right at the fuel, and then maybe have a tax for other industrial elements.
" buying the car was aspirational and signified the rite of passage"
It's also practical.