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"Big West" tearing the gap? How to rationally view the differences between the US and Europe|Experts have something to say

2022-12-05T03:26:40.738Z


Recently, French President Macron visited the United States. One of his main tasks was to mediate disputes between Europe and the United States on trade subsidies. On the first day of his visit, Macron directly pointed out that the subsidy measures adopted by the Biden administration to support domestic industries are "radical".


Recently, French President Macron visited the United States. One of his main tasks was to mediate disputes between Europe and the United States on trade subsidies.

On the first day of his visit, Macron directly pointed out that the subsidy measures adopted by the Biden administration to support domestic industries were "radical", and asked the United States and Europe to strengthen coordination in this field.


Written by: Sun Chenghao, Assistant Researcher, Center for Strategy and Security Studies, Tsinghua University


Obviously, the "Inflation Reduction Act" launched by the United States has triggered a new round of quarrels and differences between the United States and Europe.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine crisis, there are two views on US-EU relations. One voice believes that the joint efforts of the US and Europe to deal with the crisis once again demonstrates the indestructibility of the transatlantic unity, the "United Front" of the "Great West" is becoming more and more stable, and the "Trump shock wave" The core of US-EU relations has not been affected; another voice believes that the new round of disputes over industrial subsidies just proves that US-EU relations are far from being as close as imagined, and the distance between the Atlantic Ocean seems to be getting wider and wider.

Both voices have a certain truth, but also have their own bias.

Under the international environment where the epidemic of the century is superimposed with the game of great powers, the relationship between the United States and Europe will inevitably be adjusted dynamically, and the aspects of cooperation and competition will increase.

On the surface, this round of disputes over industrial subsidies is a manifestation of the long-term game between the United States and Europe in the field of economics, trade and rules, and is nothing new.

Since the economic recovery of Western Europe in the 1960s, there have been divergences of interest and competition between the United States and Europe in the economic field. With the Trump administration embarking on the "America First" path, the competition between the two sides in the economic and trade field has become increasingly fierce.

During Biden’s tenure, the economic and trade disputes between the United States and Europe have eased. In particular, the two sides reached a "truce agreement" on the aviation subsidy dispute. The United States has set up a joint working group with the European Commission to continue to resolve the dispute on this issue.

The "Inflation Cutting Act" has once again ignited the anger in Europe.

The European side believes that the subsidy provisions of the "Inflation Reduction Act" targeting US companies in the fields of green hydrogen energy and semiconductors will have a negative impact on the EU's industrial competitiveness, investment, and green economy transformation. coordinated, but the problem remains unresolved.

Against the background of the protracted crisis in Ukraine, an exhausted Europe is also thinking about its own interests. The European strategic community even openly questioned whether the United States is making "war money" and whether Washington is an ally of Brussels?

US-French relations: The picture shows on December 1, 2022, US President Biden (left) and French President Macron (right) came to the South Lawn of the White House to attend the ceremony welcoming Macron's visit to the United States. The two expressed friendship and cordiality.

(Reuters)

The best prospect the EU can imagine is to shake hands with the United States to make peace, include European companies in the scope of US subsidies, and prevent European companies from further flowing to the United States, but the EU's means may be limited.

If the EU makes a symbolic protest on the WTO platform, or formally sues the United States, it will be difficult to achieve real results in a timely manner.

If the EU imitates the US subsidy rules and proposes an EU version of the subsidy plan, it may be effective in the short term, but in the long run it will overdraw the EU's reputation for supporting multilateralism and free trade, and bring irreversible damage to the "normative power" that the EU is proud of s damage.

What the Biden administration can do is also extremely limited.

Although Biden said in response to European doubts that there was a "small error" in the previous bill and that "we will not sacrifice European interests when we create manufacturing jobs," the Biden administration, which has lost the majority of both houses after the mid-term elections and is facing a split government, may It is difficult to reverse the core provisions of the Inflation Cutting Act.

The Republican Party will not make it easy for Biden to get what he wants in Congress, and key Democrats in the Senate are unwilling to abandon the content of the bill to stimulate the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing.

In the final analysis, what Europe will face is the United States, which is more contradictory in its foreign strategy. Whether it can proceed from Europe's own interests and implement a compartmentalized approach to allies on different issues will test Europe's wisdom.

The new U.S. "National Security Strategy" report shows that the Biden administration is trying to balance investing domestically and uniting allies, hoping to break down domestic and international boundaries and promote the so-called "middle-class diplomacy."

However, in the eyes of allies including Europe, there is no essential difference between "middle-class diplomacy" and Trump's "America First".

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen believes that the EU should revise its state aid regulations in response to the challenge posed by the Inflation Cut Act.

(Reuters)

Europe is not inactive, and is actively promoting bills and policies to strengthen "strategic autonomy" in the face of changing circumstances.

In the field of microchips, which both the United States and Europe are extremely concerned about, the "Chip and Science Act" introduced by the United States has also caused great complaints from Europe.

Macron stated that the Chip Act and the Inflation Reduction Act will freeze transnational investment on both sides of the Atlantic, damage US-EU relations, and fragment the West.

The European Commission passed the "European Chip Act" in February this year. Part of the purpose is to hedge the actions of the United States in the chip field, strengthen the EU semiconductor ecosystem, ensure the security of the chip supply chain, reduce international dependence, and better promote the EU's green and digital transformation.

The emergence of these differences between the United States and Europe when the Ukraine crisis has not subsided seems to make people feel that the seriousness of these differences has overwhelmed the common needs of the two sides in geopolitics, or that the fatigue of the crisis makes it difficult for the United States and Europe to cover up sharper issues. contradiction.

However, from a historical perspective, the competition and differences between the US and Europe in the fields of economy, trade and rules are consistent. They were not caused by the Biden administration, let alone the Ukraine crisis.

Therefore, we should neither think that the United States and Europe will become more "monolithic" under the influence of the Ukraine crisis, nor that the differences between the United States and Europe have overwhelmed the side of unity, and we should not over-magnify the challenges facing the US-Europe alliance relationship, thinking that the relationship between the United States and Europe It's already in danger.

The differences between the United States and Europe are still internal contradictions within the framework of the alliance, and it is difficult to go beyond the framework of representative democracy and capitalist market economy in the short term. Maintaining the stability and attractiveness of this framework is not only the historical consensus of the two sides, but also the United States and Europe. The West of the main body occupies the moral high ground in the world and the foundation of the "institutional advantage" and even "civilizational advantage" it recognizes.

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Source: hk1

All news articles on 2022-12-05

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