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
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
White House Announces No Imminent Summit Between Trump and Putin
China Presses Netherlands to “properly” Resolve the Nexperia Seizure as Supply Chain Risks Grow
Merz Attacks Migrants, Sparks Uproar, and Refuses to Apologize: “Ask Your Daughters”
Apple Challenges EU Digital Markets Act Crackdown in Landmark Court Battle
Shouting Match at the White House: 'Trump Cursed, Threw Maps, and Told Zelensky – "Putin Will Destroy You"'
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Trump Says Ukraine Can Fully Restore Borders with NATO Backing
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
×