The boss of German chemicals giant BASF on Wednesday called for the European Union to relax carbon trading rules, as the firm reported a drop in core profit with the industry in crisis.

Speaking to reporters on a call, Markus Kamieth said EU plans to put a tax on carbon-intensive imports were a "good idea" in principle, but it was becoming "very, very difficult in practice" for industry to deal with Europe's market for carbon permits and attendant taxes.

"Industry in Europe has to deal with the rigidness of this system and the incredibly increasing CO2 costs that we might have in the next decade," he said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said earlier this month that he would try to delay planned EU taxes on carbon-intensive imports and also fight for wider deregulation of the chemicals

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