Effective January 1, 2026, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will enter its final financial phase. Designed by the European Union to combat carbon leakage and restore balance in industrial competition, this mechanism will apply without distinction to the outermost regions. In Martinique, this uniform application is raising serious concerns. At a meeting organized by the Martinique Association for the Promotion of Industry (AMPI), industrialists and representatives from the construction, agriculture, and professional organizations sectors outlined, point by point, the concrete impacts expected on production costs, employment, housing, and purchasing power.
A climate mechanism with direct economic consequences
The MACF aims to impose a tax on certain inputs imported from outside the European Union—clinker, steel, aluminum, nitrogen fertilizers, and hydrogen—in order to align their carbon costs with those of European products subject to strict environmental standards.
While this principle is recognized as legitimate from a climate perspective, it nevertheless poses a major problem for Martinique: the lack of viable local or European alternatives for these essential inputs.
For Charles Larcher, president of Martinique Association for the Promotion of Industry, the MACF was designed without a specific impact assessment for the outermost regions. Yet these territories already face structural disadvantages recognized by the European Union: insularity, dependence on imports, high freight and energy costs, and small markets that offer little scope for cost recovery. The addition of a carbon tax on imports automatically exacerbates these imbalances.
Cement: An Inevitable Rise in Construction Costs
The cement industry is on the front lines. In Martinique, there is no no local clinker production, an essential raw material accounting for approximately 75 % in the cement composition. Every year, between 120,000 to 150,000 metric tons are imported to ensure the continuity of local production.
As explained by Stéphane Abramovici and the director of Lafarge Martinique, Most of these imports come from nearby geographic regions, which until now has made sense from both an economic and environmental standpoint. Starting in 2026, imported clinker will be subject to the MACF.
The first available simulations indicate:
A minimum increase of 11 % in the price of cement starting at the beginning of 2026,
an increase of approximately +7 % on ready-mix concrete,
and, ultimately, an overall increase in the Estimated construction cost between +3 and +5 %.
These figures could still rise, as the methods used to calculate the MACF have not yet been fully standardized.
A construction industry already under strain
These increases come at a particularly challenging time for the construction industry in Martinique. Cement production is already down by 15 % over one year, and nearly 40 % over twenty years. Industry experts are warning of a clear risk: the inability to absorb further cost increases without direct consequences for business operations, employment, and the viability of companies.
Representatives of the CPME Martinique, from the Chamber of Trades and construction industry organizations emphasized one key point: the government contract, particularly public housing, will be directly affected. Financing plans are finalized well before construction begins, based on assumptions that are incompatible with the announced increases. Possible consequences: project delays, project cancellations, and a sustained slowdown in housing production.
Fertilizers: A Blow to Local Agriculture
The second sector that is heavily affected is agriculture. Gwenaëlle Cottin, director of SCIC Martinique, explained the impact of the MACF on the nitrogen fertilizers, a key factor in agricultural productivity.
Effective January 1, 2026, imported nitrogen-based raw materials will be subject to a tax, as follows:
one Estimated increase of between 15 and 20 1Q3Q in fertilizer prices,
which may exceed 30 % on certain commodities, depending on the scenario.
This increase will have a direct impact on agricultural production costs and, in turn, on retail prices. It comes at a time when the country is already grappling with rising living costs and pursuing its stated goal of food self-sufficiency.
Here again, an inconsistency is highlighted: the SCIC sources most of its supplies from the Caribbean region, particularly in Trinidad, with an optimized logistics carbon footprint. The MACF could force suppliers to source from farther away, which would paradoxically worsen the overall carbon footprint.
An economic, social, and regional risk
As the speakers took the floor, one conclusion became clear: if the MACF is implemented without being adapted to the realities of the overseas territories, it risks having the opposite effect of what is intended.
Rising construction costs, the erosion of social housing, rising agricultural prices, threats to local industry, and the erosion of economic sovereignty: the consequences mentioned extend far beyond the industrial sectors alone.
All of the participants called on public authorities—parliamentarians, the prefect, the government, and European institutions—to adapt the system, in particular through a exclusion of the outermost regions or, failing that, through corrective mechanisms that take their structural constraints into account.
A deadline is approaching, and decisions can still be made
The timeline is tight. The MACF will take effect on January 1, 2026, even though many uncertainties remain regarding its calculation methods and actual effects. For Martinican economic stakeholders, the issue is not to call the climate goal into question, but to prevent a poorly calibrated measure from becoming an additional factor contributing to economic and social vulnerability.
The question at hand is now a political one: Can we apply a uniform rule to territories that are structurally different without assessing the consequences?
CHARLES LARCHER'S SPEECH
