BRUSSELS —
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday the bloc must act to address
“distortions” created by Washington’s $430-billion plan to spur
climate-friendly technologies in the US.
اضافة اعلان
EU countries have
poured criticism on Washington’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), seeing
it as anti-competitive and a threat to European jobs, especially in the energy
and auto sectors.
The bloc must
“take action to rebalance the playing field where the IRA or other measures
create distortions”, von der Leyen said in a speech at the College of Europe in
the Belgian city of Bruges.
The act, designed
to accelerate the US transition to a low-carbon economy, contains around $370
billion in subsidies for green energy as well as tax cuts for US-made electric
cars and batteries.
Von der Leyen said
the EU had to work with the US “to address some of the most concerning aspects
of the law”.
But she said that
Brussels must also “adjust” its own rules to facilitate public investment in
the environmental transition and “reassess the need for further European
funding of the transition”.
French President
Emmanuel Macron seized an opportunity on a state visit to Washington for talks
with US President Joe Biden last week to air deep grievances over US-EU trade.
The White House
touts the IRA as a groundbreaking effort to reignite US manufacturing and
promote renewable technologies.
Commenting on the
issue Sunday, French minister delegate for industry, Roland Lescure noted in a
broadcast interview that “competition must be strong and fair — we must
coordinate to ensure we are on a level playing field.”
Lescure added that
US subsidies were distributed “a little more swiftly and effectively than
ours”.
By way of example,
he said: “For an electric vehicle in the US you have a $7,000 subsidy but it
has to be American down to the circuitry.
“In France, you
have 6,000 or 7,000 euros according to your wage and the vehicle can come from
China.”
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