French president Emmanuel Macron is visiting President Biden today, but before the visit he gave a speech at the French embassy.
The Washington Post reports that he is not entirely satisfied with American foreign policy:
The impact of the Inflation Reduction Act in Europe has proven to be a major point of tension. Macron’s sharp warning of an economic split captures a broader sentiment in European capitals that the IRA, which includes $369 billion in aid to U.S. manufacturers, is a nationalistic measure that will hurt their economies.
....Macron in his comments Wednesday also took aim at the multibillion dollar Chips Act, which seeks to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry. The danger, he said, is that the United States looks first to itself, “then looks at its rivalry with China — and that Europe, and therefore France, becomes a sort of adjustment variable.”
The Wall Street Journal confirms that Macron's concerns over our climate subsidies are widely shared:
The European Union, South Korea, Japan and the U.K. have all criticized the subsidies, arguing they discriminate against their companies and violate World Trade Agreement rules.
National subsidies are always a point of contention, and I imagine that these will be litigated at the WTO as usual.
As for the CHIPS Act, it sounds like Macron may be thinking less about semiconductor subsidies here and more about a different issue: Biden's ban on exporting advanced chip technology to China. Last month I was curious about how our allies felt about this, since Biden's order also forbids other countries from exporting cutting-edge chips to China if they incorporate any US technology in their products. At the time I hadn't heard of any European pushback, but it sounds like Macron and the EU have more concerns than I knew about. The problem, apparently, is not that Macron opposes the goal of Biden's export ban, just that he's afraid the US is so economically powerful that it can impose unilateral trade sanctions that other countries are then forced to go along with. This is hardly a brand new concern, however, and we'll have to wait to see how it works out.
Another interesting tidbit was Macron's comment about the Ukraine War, namely that “the cost of the war is not the same in Europe and in the U.S.,” given Europe’s proximity to Russia and its reliance on Russian oil and natural gas.
That's true! Americans complain about gasoline prices and food inflation, but Europe is facing both of these problems as well as big fuel shortages and scarcities of certain foods. Macron didn't suggest there was anything unfair about this—it's just a natural consequence of geography—but did seem to think that perhaps the US ought to complain a little less about both the cost of its assistance and the occasional reluctance of European leaders to piss off their voters even more given the sacrifices they were already making.
They really need to just pass their own EV subsidy regime EU-wide, offset with taxes. I know the German government can seem pathologically incapable of spending on infrastructure and long-term investment, but you'd think they'd be more worried about losing their edge in automotive manufacturing.
Manny, mon cherie, do you want a republican president? Do you think THAT would strengthen NATO unity?
So stfu.
Sure, fears of the potentially horrible outcomes flowing from US domestic politics should be used by America to always get its way and never give a fig for the concerns of its allies. Bend over, Monsieur Le President, or we'll hand the country over to Nazis!
Sounds like a plan.
Given that the U.S. was responsible for the Bretton-Woods fiasco within (barely) living memory, I'd say the man is not out of line.
My cousin could truly receive money in their spare time on their laptop. their best friend had been doing this 4 only about 12 months and by now cleared the debt. in their mini mansion and bought a great Car.
That is what we do.. https://earningblue.blogspot.com/
If it were up to me, I’d restrict chip tech going to India as well, until they back away from Putin.
Nah. Just restrict H1-Bs for contractors from India.
The US, UK and Russia have a treaty obligation to insure the geographical integrity of Ukraine as a nation. NATO and the EU countries don't.
This is false. Under the Budapest Memorandum, the U.S., U.K., and Russia have an obligation to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. None of them have an obligation to ensure that integrity. The U.S. and U.K. are not required to defend Ukraine from Russia. They should support Ukraine, and they are, but this is a choice on their part.
Beyond that, the Memorandum was never ratified by the U.S. Senate, so it isn't actually a treaty at all, and does not have the force of one.
You can read the text of the Budapest here: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%203007/Part/volume-3007-I-52241.pdf
+1
European complaints about unfair trade practices always ring hollow to me. Many, many products have to meet CE standards to be sold in Europe. I worked for many years at a company that both exported and imported products requiring compliance with CE standards. In one case, a shipment of goods we made was denied entry by custom officials in Belgium because they did not meet a draft standard. The standard didn’t issue for several years, but we jumped thru hoops to certify to the draft.
Then, a couple of years after the draft issued, a European company was trying to get us to replace these products, which we manufactured, with ones they made in Europe. We asked them for their CE test data so that Engineering could minimize the amount of testing that would have to be done. They said that CE didn’t apply to them!
Our company was owned by a European company and they pressured us to sell an Italian machine that we had misgivings about. Sure enough, soon failures were happening that CE testing should have prevented. The European company was having the same problem and sent a team to Italy. They discovered that this Italian manufacturer had never done any testing. They’d never had some of the equipment required and had not contracted with any outside lab. They did have a silkscreen to print “CE” on the machine though.
And, do you think that Airbus had anything to do with Lockheed and McDonald Douglas exiting civil aviation?
Three Macrons in a raincoat -- the Vincent Adultman version of Charles DeGaulle.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bojackhorseman/images/1/1f/Vincentadultmancropped.png/revision/latest?cb=20190117013957
Did they do a business?
Complaints about nationalism, driven by nationalistic appeal. Par for the course.