Speaking at an industry conference in Berlin on 31 October, Wally Adeyemo, US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, was keen to defend the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) against its European critics, saying that it “contributes to our collective efforts to tackle climate change and promote energy security”.
“I think one of the misconceptions around the IRA is that it signals a return to American protectionism or the start of a subsidy race. It will be neither”, he declared, while the German Minister for the Economy, Robert Habeck, who was also present, was critical, pointing to possible unfair competition from industries across the Atlantic.
Wally Adeyemo was also keen to highlight the “difference in political systems” between the EU and the USA, one of the reasons why “we need to use different tools to achieve the same objectives” of ecological transition.
The EU and the US are still in discussions to reach an agreement on sustainable steel and aluminium (see EUROPE 13227/8) and on critical minerals (see EUROPE 13250/25), which should be a way for European industries to reduce the impact of the IRA.
But the summit between the two parties on 20 October ended in a breakdown in negotiations (see EUROPE 13276/1). These will continue at the technical level, with a deadline of 1 January 2024. Link to the G7 statement: https://aeur.eu/f/9bt (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)