French President Emmanuel Macron will voice his concerns about the impact of US industrial subsidies and tax breaks during talks with US President Joe Biden in Washington next week, a senior French official said on Friday.
France and other EU countries are increasingly concerned that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed by Biden in August, will distort transatlantic trade to give American companies an unfair advantage.
The law, intended to accelerate the US transition to green energy subsidies as well as tax cuts for US-made electric cars and batteries: “We cannot risk further deindustrialization in Europe while we try to reindustrialize ourselves. ' a senior Macron adviser told reporters. ahead of the French leader's trip to Washington, which begins Tuesday night.
The top concern is "repatriating American investment in Europe," he said during a briefing ahead of the first state visit by a foreign leader to Washington in under Biden.
While Macron acknowledges that no major changes can be made to what is seen as one of Biden's key legislative achievements, he hopes to create "waivers" to help European industry.
We imagine that the US government is accepting derogations to some degree in a number of European industrial sectors, perhaps in the same way they are doing for Canada and Mexico," the adviser added. Macron, 44, has long advocated a "Buy Europe Act,” which would provide incentives and requirements for “consumers and governments to use equipment made in the EU.
But the idea has met resistance from countries like the Netherlands and Germany, concerned about the cost and impact on the EU trade," he said.
Macron "will draw the necessary conclusions for us Europeans from the talks," he added. "CAP" Tensions over US industrial policy are one of several points of friction between the European Union and Washington that Macron will address next week. during his state visit.
EU countries are also frustrated by the huge profits being made by US energy exporters shipping LNG gas to Europe after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February. Sanctions against Russia," the French official said, referring to the sanctions imposed on Russia's energy and industrial sectors.
We see the risk of a rift between Europe and the United States," he added, stressing the need for a new "synchronization". Macron is due to arrive in Washington Tuesday night before beginning a two-day official meeting. Program that will give him all the honors of a state visit to the White House on Thursday.
He will be the first French president to be offered two state visits that have the highest level of diplomatic protocol, his office said. His first came at the invitation of Donald Trump in April 2018 amid another transatlantic trade dispute over US tariffs on steel and aluminum brought up by the former Republican president.
This trip was memorable because Trump publicly brushed scales from Macron's suit and the two men planted an oak tree. on the White House lawn, which was later removed and later died.
Relations between Macron and Biden were severely strained by a dispute over the delivery of submarines to Australia in 2021, but have since recovered, with the two men speaking and meeting regularly." The relationship (with Biden) is very fluid, amicable and very open to all topics," the French official said.
Presidents Trump and Biden do not have the same personality at all and the dynamic is not the same," he added. Macron is accompanied by a large delegation of ministers and business leaders. He travels to New Orleans on Friday for his
th planned visit to initiate talks on nuclear energy and space cooperation.
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