EU's Dombrovskis says the new US law threatens to undermine progress made by the year-old transatlantic forum in repairing trade ties between the US and the EU. — Reuters
NEW YORK: The United States and the European Union (EU) cite progress addressing EU concerns about a US climate law that would cut off the bloc’s electric vehicles (EVs) from US tax credits.
They issued a joint statement after the third ministerial-level of the US-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) vowed to work constructively to resolve it.
“We acknowledge the EU’s concerns and underline our commitment to address them constructively,” the statement said, taking note of progress made by a task force set up to address the dispute.
EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis called the US$430bil (RM1.88 trillion) US Inflation Reduction Act discriminatory and urged steps be taken before the year’s end to modify the law.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the council had enabled both sides, which account for a combined 40% of global economic output, to make “practical, concrete progress” on key issues, including countering Russia’s war in Ukraine, and said he was confident the tax credit issue could be resolved.
“We all emerged from these meetings convinced that this is a positive, productive way forward for both the EU and the US,” he said after six hours of meetings in Maryland.
Dombrovskis told the broadcaster Deutsche Welle before the meeting that the new US law threatened to undermine progress made by the year-old transatlantic forum in repairing trade ties between the US and the EU.
“With all our discussions, we are in a sense making a step forward, but with the Inflation Reduction Act we’re making two steps backwards, so we need to reconcile it,” he said, although he told reporters afterwards he felt “slightly more optimistic.” — Reuters
