On his return from Emmanuel Macron's visit to the United States, where the Head of State indicated that he had made progress on the subject of the American "Inflation Reduction Act" (IRA), Bruno Le Maire called on Europeans to imitate the Americans and not to be afraid to establish a "
European preference
" in industrial matters.
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Faced with a
$430 billion “
Inflation Reduction Act ” – which includes generous subsidies for American energy transition industries – the French Minister of the Economy has declared himself in favor of “
a European IRA
”.
“
What we have done is not enough at European level.
It is necessary with much more force and with much more powerful financial instruments to defend our European industry
”, hammered the tenant of Bercy.
A “carbon tax at the borders” demanded
In particular, Bruno Le Maire called for the “
quick
” implementation of a “
carbon tax at the borders
”, “
to prevent us from reimporting cheaper carbon products while we produce carbon-free products on our soil
”.
"
We must not hesitate to increase the amount of financial aid needed, and we must not hesitate to pronounce this word of European preference in public contracts, in public purchases
", he added.
"
That we prefer a European product to an imported product, it should be natural
", he concluded.
Read alsoThe three successes of Emmanuel Macron in the United States
After calling Washington's massive subsidies to its industry "super aggressive" on a commercial level for European companies, Emmanuel Macron obtained from Joe Biden a US promise to examine how
"tweaks"
in the application of the IRA could spare Europe its harmful consequences.
Concretely, Bruno Le Maire clarified that three subjects were on the table with the Americans: "
If European goods can be included in the benefit of the provisions of this IRA
", "
avoid the race for subsidies
" and the question of industrial projects "
strategies
” for European countries.
