* US says global warming fight does not augur protectionism
* Developing nations fear for higher-emission exports
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
BONN, Germany, April 1 (Reuters) - U.S. plans to step up the fight against climate change and revive the economy will not mean a slide towards protectionism, Washington's delegation told United Nations climate talks on Wednesday.
Developing nations at the 175-nation U.N. meeting in Bonn say that exports, of everything from Chinese steel to African flowers, would suffer if rich states put up import barriers to penalise their emissions from burning fossil fuels.
"We certainly do not see it that way," U.S. deputy special envoy for climate change Jonathan Pershing told delegates at the March 29-April 8 meeting in Bonn, Germany, working on details of a U.N. climate pact due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.
"We are looking to improve efficiency, we're looking to improve technology, we're looking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This does not in our minds constitute a protectionist strategy," he said.
But many developing nations in Bonn have aired worries that their exports will suffer. And recession adds to risks of protectionist barriers, perhaps veiled as measures to slow global warming, some delegates said.
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said last month that Washington's plans to put a price on domestic greenhouse gas emissions included examination of the option of tariffs on imports from countries that did penalise carbon emissions.
"There is a risk of trade protectionism," Fareed Saeed Asaly, international policies senior adviser at the Saudi oil ministry, told delegates.
STEEL
He said that developing country steel exporters, such as China, India or South Africa, risked trade penalties since their factories were less efficient and emitted more greenhouse gases than those in developed nations. Saudi Arabia also fears that oil exports will suffer from a shift to renewable energies.
U.S. steel industry officials have argued that China already has an advantage because of lax pollution controls. They favour import fees if Washington adopts greenhouse gas cuts and Beijing does not.
Several developing countries said that developed nation schemes for "eco-labelling" -- marking goods with the amount of greenhouse gases used to produce them -- could discourage exports of products such as Kenyan flowers or Chilean apples that are flown or shipped over long distances.
The U.N. Climate Panel says greenhouse gases will bring more droughts, floods and rising seas.
Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said that now was not the time for debate about possible trade wars linked to carbon. "Everyone is very constructively working for an agreement for Copenhagen," he told Reuters.
"We don't think that these fears (of developing nations) are justified," Artur Runge-Metzger, head of the European Commission delegation, told Reuters. The European Union set up a carbon trading market in 2005.
He said the EU had worked to avert competitive distortions by handing out free carbon emission allowances to EU industries outside the power sector. And the EU let governments aid firms suffering from rises in electricity prices.
Still, many say that trade and climate will overlap more and more. "Climate issues are going to be an increasing part of the trade debate," said Jennifer Haverkamp of the U.S. Environmental Defense Fund.
-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Editing by Louise Ireland)