Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the European Union today to impose a Carbon tax on American goods if President-elect Donald Trump pulls the United States out of the Paris climate agreement.

“Donald Trump said he would not meet the commitments of the Paris agreement on climate,” Sarkozy, who was the President from 2007 to 2012 and is attempting to regain the presidency at the 2017 elections, told the TF1 newspaper in Bordeaux. “I ask Europe to adopt a carbon tax at the borders of Europe – a tax of 1 to 3% for all products that come from the United States if the United States wants to exempt itself from environmental rules that we impose on our businesses.”

Sarkozy made this statement as Reuters reported that Trump is looking at ways to quickly withdrawing from the climate agreement defying widespread international backing for the plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change.

Trump considers climate change a “Chinese hoax,” appointed well-known climate sceptic Myron Ebell to head the Environmental Protection Authority transition team.

“We shouldn’t be in a situation where our businesses meet international obligations while we import goods from countries that meet none of those obligations,” Sarkozy said.

The Paris agreement signed by almost 200 nations in December has been ratified by 109 countries representing more than three-quarters of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, including China, which accounts for almost a quarter of the world’s emissions, and the United States, which accounts for 16%.

The European Union is US’s largest trade partner in terms of exports after Canada, with Europeans importing US $276 billion worth of American goods last year.