The “Made in America” subsidies for green industry in Joe Biden’s climate plan worry Europe, and the French and German finance ministers are in Washington on Tuesday to advocate “fair competition.” “We are here, with my friend Robert Habcek, to defend the interests of European industry,” said the French Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, during a press conference in Washington together with his German counterpart.
The two European ministers will meet on Tuesday with various officials from the Joe Biden administration. The “Inflation Reduction Act” (IRA), the great climate plan of the US president, foresees 370 billion dollars of investments in favor of the fight against climate change, in particular for companies that manufacture car batteries in the United States, electricity or solar panels. The European Union is concerned about its industry, fearing industrial relocations to the United States.
Europe calls for transparency in subsidies and tax credits
Robert Habeck celebrated the fact that the United States has “decided to fight global warming” and “all these investments directed at green industries.” Europe, however, calls for “total transparency on the level of subsidies and tax credits that the US administration will grant to US industry,” said the French minister.
This should allow the European Commission to implement the system of “matching clauses” that it has proposed, that is, to align the aid granted by the European Union to its industry with that granted by the United States. “The amount of this aid still remains to be known,” Bruno Le Maire explained before he left for Washington.
The ministers will also advocate “seeing that as many European components as possible also benefit from these tax credits and these American subsidies”, Bruno Le Maire stressed, citing electric vehicles, batteries or even “critical materials”.
A Biden administration open to cooperation with Brussels but firm
It is the European Commission that is leading the negotiations with Washington, and will prepare its response on the occasion of a summit of heads of state and government on February 9 and 10. But “being ministers on the ground responsible for industries, we want to bring our experience to the table,” Robert Habeck told reporters in Washington on Monday. The Biden administration says it wants to work with Brussels. But he is firm on the merits of his legislation.
The two ministers, thus, will meet this Tuesday successively with the White House economic adviser, Brian Deese, and the deputy national security adviser, Mike Pyle, then with the Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, and finally with her American counterpart, the Secretary of State. the treasure Janet Yellen. A joint press conference will be organized at 13:00 (18:00 GMT). And his final meeting of the day will be with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who was instrumental in tightening the terms of grants in exchange for his IRA vote.
Speaking to EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Monday, Janet Yellen “emphasized the need to boost technology development and deployment on both sides of the Atlantic to accelerate the transition to green energy and meet our collective climate goals.” “, according to a statement from the Treasury Department.
Source: BFM TV
