- December 20, 2022
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- December 20, 2022
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of President Biden’s administration is making waves on the European side of the Atlantic. The bill, which was passed by Congress in August, provides for a multi-billion euro program to subsidize companies that create production capacities in the field of renewable energies and sustainable technologies on U.S. soil. Spurred on by highly critical comments from France and Germany in particular, the EU Commission expressed the need for talks with the U.S. government. A task force is now expected to bring the contentious issues to light and address the Europeans’ industrial policy objections regarding a distortion of competition and protectionist measures by the USA. The outcome of the consultations is currently entirely uncertain.
What is behind the $370 billion in subsidies or tax rebates in the area of renewable energies and green technologies? How is the concrete implementation of this extensive subsidy planned on the U.S. side? What are the EU governments’ objections to the IRA in terms of industrial and economic policy and competitiveness? Will the task force set up at the end of October succeed in calming the waters between the U.S. and the EU? Or should we expect the dispute to intensify? Podcast hosts Julia Friedlander, Atlantik-Brücke, and Stormy-Annika Mildner, Aspen Institute Germany, discuss these questions with Heike Buchter, U.S. correspondent for DIE ZEIT in New York, and Dr. Laura von Daniels, head of the “America” research group at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).
