DG Thomas discussed international carbon pricing with Singapore authorities and local stakeholders. During his visit, he met the Permanent Secretaries of the Ministry for Trade and Industry, Gabriel Lim, the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, Stanley Loh, the Ministry of Finance, Ching Yee Tan, Singapore Customs and the EU business community.

The Director-General participated in a public event, co-organised with the EU-ASEAN Business Council and the support of EuroCham, on ‘Understanding the EU’s CBAM’. “Privilege to continue cooperation with ASEAN partners on CBAM! We want to ensure fullest transparency in its definitive design which will only kick in as of 2026 and welcome moves towards carbon pricing in the region,” he wrote on X.  

On October 1, CBAM has entered the transitional period of implementation, in which trade partners are called to report the carbon content of their exports to the EU. CBAM assigns carbon prices to imports, mirroring the internal carbon pricing mechanism which applies to EU companies through the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) since 2005. Essentially, CBAM aims to: prevent carbon leakage, the phenomenon whereby firms relocate their production to countries with laxer climate policies; level the playing field for EU firms subject to ETS; and contribute to global decarbonisation by 2050. As noted by DG Thomas in an opinion article written for Singapore’s Business Times, South-East Asian countries will be impacted by CBAM to some extent – particularly Vietnam’s, Malaysia’s and Thailand’s iron and steel sectors.