CLEPA joins call for workable CBAM rules that protect the entire automotive value chain

CLEPA, together with ACEA and Tyres Europe, has called on EU institutions to ensure that the proposed extension of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) works for the whole automotive value chain, including automotive suppliers, vehicle manufacturers, and tyre producers. 

In a joint letter ahead of the interinstitutional negotiations on CBAM downstream extension, the signatories express support for CBAM’s objective of preventing carbon leakage, but warn that the current direction of the talks risks creating significant compliance burdens and costs for downstream industries. They urge policymakers to extend CBAM to downstream sectors only where a material carbon-leakage risk is demonstrated and where methodology, data availability and verification capacity are proven to work for complex products. They also call for a proportionate expansion, targeting the greatest carbon leakage risk through the smallest necessary number of relevant precursors, rather than the hundreds of CN codes currently under discussion. 

The letter asks for lower compliance burdens, including more proportionate default values that reflect actual production routes, particularly for aluminium and post-consumer scrap, so that recycling is not discouraged. It calls for the current 50-tonne threshold for aluminium products to be maintained instead of being lowered to 5 tonnes, and warns against double carbon-cost burdens for an industry already facing higher carbon-related costs for European steel and aluminium. The signatories stress that CBAM should protect the whole industry from carbon leakage rather than shifting the risk further down the value chain, and urge EU institutions to support a workable and balanced approach that keeps investment, jobs and manufacturing in Europe.