US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said again on Thursday that the Biden administration does not want to punish its trading partners, especially Europeans, with its climate plan, despite specific difficulties in writing these rules.
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“The goal of Congress was to make sure we have secure supply chains and try to get our allies involved in that. So we’re going to see what can be done,” Secretary of Commerce and Treasury Joe Biden assured reporters during a trip to Fort Worth, Texas.
She pointed to U.S. subsidies granted only to U.S.-built EVs, which are “also a concern.”
“We have a responsibility at Treasury to write the rules regarding the various tax incentives. And we listen to a variety of stakeholders to make sure we’re doing everything right,” Yellen said.
She underlined that one of the problems was “defining the free trade partners” and cited the example of “alliances with Europe in Japan, with which we have no formal free trade agreement. Exchange”.
The European Union has been concerned for several months about the impact of the IRA, US President Joe Biden’s $420 billion plan largely devoted to climate and approved last summer, which is the focus of French President Emmanuel’s state visit Macron was in Washington last week.
The issue was also discussed by the United States and the European Union Monday near Washington at the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) meeting.
Ms Yellen also stressed that despite still very high inflation (7.7% over a year in October), the US economy can emerge from the recession in 2023.
“I think we are on the right track to bring down inflation and avoid a recession,” the minister said.
The persistence of this high inflation is urging the central bank (Fed) to tighten monetary conditions more before slowing economic activity and hence inflation, but at the risk of triggering a recession.
The Fed will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday and is expected to raise interest rates by half a percentage point. This is still a sharp rise but represents a slowdown from what was assumed over the past four sessions and reflects the first signs of inflation slowing.