"We are here, with my friend Robert Habeck, to defend the interests of European industry", indicated the French Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, during a press briefing in Washington with his counterpart. German.

"The sooner we manage to build a strong green industry on both sides of the Atlantic, the better it will be for the climate. But that presupposes that we establish fair competition rules between the United States and Europe", a- he hammered.

The two ministers are due to meet with several officials from Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday.

The "Inflation Reduction Act" (IRA), the major climate plan of the American president, provides 370 billion dollars of investments in favor of the fight against climate change, in particular for companies manufacturing car batteries in the United States electricity or solar panels.

The European Union is worried about its industry, fearing industrial relocations to the United States.

"We are convinced with Germany that there is room for a strong European green industry and for a strong American green industry and that our common objective must be the fight against climate change", continued Mr. Le Maire. .

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck and his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire, in Washington on February 7, 2023 © Brendan Smialowski / AFP

"Transparency" on subsidies

Robert Habeck welcomed the fact that the United States had "decided to fight against global warming", and "all these investments targeted towards green industries".

Europe, however, is asking for "full transparency on the level of subsidies and tax credits that will be granted by the American administration to American industry", specified the French minister.

This should enable the European Commission to put in place the system of "matching clauses" that it has proposed, i.e. to align the aid granted by the European Union to its industry with that granted by the Member States. United.

"We still need to know what the amount of this aid is", detailed Bruno Le Maire before his departure for Washington, during an interview with AFP.

The ministers will also plead for "seeing the greatest possible number of European components also benefit from these tax credits and these American subsidies", underlined Bruno Le Maire, citing electric vehicles, batteries, or even " critical materials".

"collective climate goals"

It is the European Commission which is leading the negotiations with Washington, and will prepare its response on the occasion of a summit of heads of state and government on 9 and 10 February.

But "being the field ministers responsible for industries, we want to bring our expertise," Robert Habeck told reporters in Washington on Monday.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck and his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire, in Washington on February 7, 2023 © Brendan Smialowski / AFP

The Biden administration says it wants to work with Brussels.

But is firm on the merits of its legislation.

The two ministers, thus, will meet successively on Tuesday the economic adviser to the White House, Brian Deese, and the deputy national security adviser, Mike Pyle, then the Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, and finally their American counterpart, the Secretary of the Treasure Janet Yellen.

A joint press conference will be organized at 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. GMT).

And their final meeting of the day will be with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who was instrumental in tightening the terms of the grants in exchange for his IRA vote.

Janet Yellen spoke to EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Monday, and "stressed the need to boost technology development and deployment on both sides of the Atlantic to accelerate the transition to green energy and fulfill our collective climate goals," according to a statement from the Treasury Department.

© 2023 AFP