WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said that new laws that give incentives for domestic production of computer chips and renewable energy parts were never intended to exclude European allies and could be tweaked.
Speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron at a joint press conference at the White House, Biden said “There are tweaks that we can make that can fundamentally make it easier for European countries to participate and/or be on their own.”
The United States and France announced on Thursday the formation of joint task force between the Unites States and the European Union to deal with trade disputes around clean energy issues emerging from the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.
The move comes as France is pressing the White House to use executive powers to loosen some of the incentives in the climate bill that favor domestic production and potentially restrict trade.
Biden said he makes no apologies for promoting American manufacturing of essential goods, but said large legislation often requires tweaks to deal with unintended consequences.
“We’re going to continue to create manufacturing jobs in America but not at the expense of Europe,” Biden said.
“We agreed to resychronize our approaches, our agendas in order to invest in critical emerging industries. Semi-conductors, batteries, hydrogen,” Macron said on Thursday during a joint press briefing.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Chris Reese and Lisa Shumaker)
