Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Trade war averted? Macron gets Biden to ‘tweak’ his industrial subsidies

Trade war averted? Macron gets Biden to ‘tweak’ his industrial subsidies

The US president conceded there were ‘glitches’ in the roll-out of America’s multi-billion-dollar package of green subsidies.
French President Emmanuel Macron snatched an unexpected win from his U.S counterpart during a visit to Washington on Thursday, getting Joe Biden to suggest that European companies could benefit from a controversial American subsidies package.

Fury has been boiling over in Europe after it became clear that Biden's Inflation Reduction Act — a $369 billion package for green industry — could drain investment out of the EU and into the U.S. Big car-making nations like France and Germany had complained that the U.S. law was potentially illegal for discriminating against foreign companies in the electric vehicle sector and encouraging consumers to "Buy American."

Macron’s visit to the U.S. had been trailed as a doomed last-ditch effort to secure a truce over Washington's largesse before the EU and U.S. would lurch into a subsidy race or full-blown trade war with countervailing tariffs.

Europeans have been pressing to receive the same rights as Mexicans and Canadians to benefit from the green cash bonanza, but with little prospect of success. For weeks, the French have been campaigning for European partners to agree to their own rival subsidy package, including a “Buy European” component.

At an affable news conference with Macron on Thursday, however, Biden conceded way more ground than had been thought possible.

"There's tweaks that we can make that can fundamentally make it easier for European countries to participate and, or be on their own, but that is something that is a matter to be worked out," the American president said. "I never intended to exclude folks who were cooperating with us. That was not the intention. We're back in business, Europe is back in business. And we are going to continue to create manufacturing jobs in America, but not at the expense of Europe."

That question of excluding Europe has been one of the major bones of contention. At a time when Europe has been paying dramatically higher energy prices than the U.S., many Europeans have seen the Inflation Reduction Act as a hostile attempt to profit from European weakness.

Several top European officials have been arguing that the EU and U.S. need to join forces against China instead of competing against each other.

That logic seemed to make headway with Biden. While making "no apology" for legislation that he said was vital to creating U.S. jobs, he noted that parts of the IRA could need a fix. "There's obviously going to be glitches in it and [we] need to reconcile changes in it," he said.

He said exemptions had been made for companies that had free-trade agreements with the U.S. but suggested that this should be extended more generally to "allies."

"There's a lot we can work out," he continued.

Macron also seemed bullish about the way things unfolded.

“We had a very good discussion on the IRA and we decided to synchronize our approaches ... as well as our investments, because we share the same strong will to secure our industries,” said Macron.

It still remains to be seen, however, how much can be achieved in practice and whether Biden was making more concessions in his friendly public appearance with Macron than he will really be able to deliver. He will, for example, be likely to face hostility in Congress over attempts to go back and fiddle with such a landmark initiative as the IRA.

It’s unclear how far Biden's administration will go in resolving issues for the Europeans at a technical level, as teams on either side still need to hash out the details. The U.S. president said the two leaders had agreed to allow their teams to "follow up” on their decisions.

This passes the small print to an EU-U.S. taskforce in charge of leading talks on trying to resolve differences on the package, but EU officials have expressed doubt concerning how much progress can be made at this level.

For the French, Biden’s unexpected concession paradoxically risks undermining Macron’s campaign at home to get the EU to roll out its own protectionist answer to the IRA.

Ahead of the visit, an adviser to Macron was briefing the press that the answer to the IRA “ultimately lay in Europe’s capacity to show it can enter the competition … and that’s the ‘Buy European Act.’”

France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire is set to continue trade discussions with U.S. officials on Friday.
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
Intel Reports Revenue Beats but Sees 81% Rise in Losses
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
Tulsi Gabbard Unveils Evidence Alleging Political Manipulation of Intelligence During Trump Administration
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Trump Announces Coca-Cola to Shift to Cane Sugar in U.S. Production
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
Moonshot AI Unveils Kimi K2: A New Open-Source AI Model
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
×