China News Service, January 30 (Xinhua) The US "Wall Street Journal" website stated in an article titled "U.S. Protectionist Tendencies Enraged European Allies" on the 29th that Europeans believe that regardless of the expected U.S. presidential election in 2024, "What will be the outcome of the rematch between Biden and Trump? U.S. economic policies have developed in a direction that is not conducive to Europe. A European diplomat even bluntly said, "The honeymoon period between the United States and Europe is over."

　　The article pointed out that diplomats and officials from various European countries are thinking about whether Europe can count on the United States to continue to support the rules-based trading system, or whether Europe will face the possibility of economic conflict between the "long-term allies" of Europe and the United States.

　　The article mentioned that the EU has taken some measures to support local industries and relaxed some subsidy rules, making it easier for European governments to compete with US clean technology incentives. But EU officials largely still adhere to traditional free trade ideas and are hesitant to adopt the same approach as the United States.

　　The article believes that in the face of a large number of thorny economic disputes, the next US president must deal with them carefully to ensure that Europe and the United States will not "break up." Each issue could trigger diplomatic wrangling, tariffs or other trade restrictions and weaken U.S.-European economic solidarity.

　　The article also mentioned that European leaders have repeatedly tried to persuade Biden to cancel tariffs. In October 2023, European Commission President von der Leyen, European Council President Michel and other EU officials arrived in the United States to participate in the US-EU Washington Summit. They originally hoped to resolve this issue at the summit.

　　It is said that at the US-EU Washington Summit, the United States and the European Union also tried to move beyond the growing dissatisfaction caused by Biden's "Inflation Reduction Act." The bill provides tax breaks for the clean energy industry in an attempt to attract foreign companies to open factories in the United States and buy local materials. When Trump was in office, he required companies to set up factories in the United States, and the relevant provisions of the bill are equivalent to using the power of U.S. tax law to support this.

　　The article disclosed that European leaders are worried that the "Inflation Reduction Act" will put their own clean energy industry at a disadvantage and attract investment funds to withdraw from the EU.

　　The article pointed out that in August 2022, a few months after Biden signed the "Inflation Reduction Act" into law, French President Macron attended a state dinner held at the White House and met with the author of a large part of the bill, West Virginia State Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin responded tit-for-tat. "You're hurting my country," Macron said, while Manchin said he didn't know when he wrote the Inflation Reduction Act that there was no free trade agreement between Europe and the United States.

　　In addition, the article also mentioned that German Chancellor Scholz also complained to Manchin in early 2023 that U.S. subsidy measures were harming the German automobile industry. According to the article, Manchin was dismissive of this. (over)