Robert Habeck and Bruno Le Maire during a press conference in Washington on February 7, 2023 (AFP/Brendan Smialowski)
The French and German economy ministers on Tuesday hailed the “significant progress” made with the Biden administration, when they came to Washington to ask for guarantees so that European industry is not penalized by the major American climate plan. .
“I believe that we have made significant progress,” French Minister Bruno Le Maire told a joint press conference with his German counterpart Robert Habeck.
Europeans are worried about the subsidies that the United States wants to grant to green companies whose products are “Made in America”, within the framework of the “Inflation Reduction Act” (IRA). Europeans fear that these subsidies will cause a flight of industrial investment from the European Union to the United States.
The major climate plan of the American president provides for 370 billion dollars of investment in favor of the fight against climate change, in particular for companies manufacturing in the United States batteries for electric cars or solar panels.
The United States has thus acceded to one of the main demands of the Europeans, by accepting a principle of “total transparency” concerning the amount of the subsidies that they will grant to their industrialists.
This will allow the EU to grant “the same level of public aid” to its own industrialists, underlined the French minister.
This principle, known as “matching clauses”, was proposed by the European Commission, which is negotiating with the United States and which will prepare its response during a summit of heads of state and government on February 9 and 10.
– “Same objective” –
MM. The Mayor and Habeck, who came to Washington to plead for “fair competition” between the United States and Europe, met with several officials from the Biden administration, including their counterpart, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Joe Biden’s minister “highlighted the need to drive innovation and technology development on both sides of the Atlantic to accelerate the transition to green energy and achieve our shared climate goals,” according to a statement from the treasury department.
European ministers showed their unity with the United States. “We share the same objective: to be more independent on the strategic value chains for the green industry”, indicated Mr. Le Maire.
“We believe (…) that there is room for a strong European industry and a strong American industry in the field of green technologies”, he added.
However, he warned of the “need for all European states to be lucid: Europe must accelerate its strategic shift towards green industry, Europe must accelerate its strategic shift towards industrial independence”.
The two European ministers met, in addition to Ms. Yellen, advisers to Mr. Biden, as well as Trade Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Before returning to Europe, they must still discuss with the democrat senator Joe Manchin, who played a decisive role in the tightening of the conditions of attribution of the subsidies in exchange for his vote in favor of the IRA.
Ms Yellen, who spoke to EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Monday, “stressed the need to boost technology development and deployment on both sides of the Atlantic to accelerate the transition to green energy and achieve our collective climate goals,” according to the Treasury Department statement.
© 2023 AFP
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