The European Union ruled that all airlines flying to and from Europe will have to pay a new emissions tax which started on 1st January this year. However, this has caused concern from international airlines not based in the EU, and China’s biggest airlines are the first to declare that they will not pay the tax, with the United States and Russia also strongly opposed to it.

The China Air Transport Association (CATA) told the BBC that its members would not cooperate with the Emissions Trading Scheme and pay the tax. CATA represents airlines including air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern and Hainan Airlines. If they don’t comply they could be fined or even banned from flying to EU countries.

China is considering retaliatory measures against EU airlines if any of its airlines are forced to pay the tax.

This seems like an almost impossible situation, how do you think this should be resolved? Should non-EU airlines be charged the tax or should the EU change their decision in order to save retaliation against our own airlines?