Very strong help against French companies

In the United States on an official visit – Emmanuel Macron, along with Premier Dame Brigitte, arrived in Washington on Tuesday. The Commander-in-Chief wanted to keep the honor of the first official visit since Biden took office to Macron, the country’s president who is “the oldest ally of the United States”, and also one of the “most dynamic leaders of the Group of Seven”, certainly the closest and most important European ally after the departure of Mario Draghi. The event was designed and designed to highlight the transatlantic friendship between the United States and France after a tense visit with Donald Trump in 2018.

files on the agenda – It was one of the first issues that the French president took up abroad The recent US anti-inflationary law, which with its incentives for renewables and priority “Made in the USA” risks triggering a new trade war with the European Union. Among the files on the agenda, ranging from the war in Ukraine to China, another thorny issue that must be addressed is the gas price that the United States exports to free Europe from dependence on Russian energy.

Macron’s spokesman to the indignation of the European Union – Brussels is against Washington’s new “protectionism” and Macron is the mouthpiece of European discontent. Inflation Reduction Act The IRA, which was approved last August, allocates $360 billion to clean energy, with strong incentives for companies working in renewable energy or for the growing number of electric vehicles, as well as strong subsidies for Made in America products. A similar effort is being made in domestic microchip manufacturing. European leaders fear that all of these measures Change the competition It harms the industries of the old continent and is moreover punished by the high cost of energy. Some even consider it the embodiment of the Smoot-Hawley Act, the catalog of tariffs introduced in the United States in the 1930s that historians attribute to exacerbating the Great Depression. Also, there are tensions on liquefied gassold by American companies A Prices are 5-6 times higher to those on the domestic market.

Opening from the White House – For now, the White House is reaching out: “We enthusiastically welcome discussion on the Inflation Reduction Act and are open to listening to Europeans’ concerns,” reiterated White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.