Boycott of the European Commissioner – he refused to visit the United States

For ignoring problems EU European Commissioner Thierry Breton is boycotting the US summit.

A trade and technology summit will be held next week at the University of Maryland, Bloomberg writes, but Thierry Breton has declined to attend. He refers to the fact that this meeting does not pay enough attention to the problems that concern European leaders.

The agency notes that recently in Brussels they do not hide their dissatisfaction with the American law on reducing inflation. And this issue has turned from the main item on the agenda of the summit into “a topic for discussion over a 45-minute lunch,” Breton’s aide notes. The European Commissioner plans to travel to the US in early 2023 to discuss technology, space and cyberspace.

The law, which Biden signed in August, provides for an expansion of tax subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles assembled in North America and using US-made batteries from locally sourced materials. The document, which the administration calls the “Inflation Reduction Act,” includes $370 billion for clean energy and climate goals, and $64 billion for lowering the cost of medicines and health insurance.

In the European Union, writes BB.LV called it discriminatory against similar products imported from other countries. European Commissioner Thierry Breton said that he does not rule out the introduction of retaliatory measures if the US does not revise the business support measures prescribed in the inflation reduction law.

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, speaking on Sunday, December 4 at the College of Europe in Bruges, warned of the threat of a new trade war between the European Union and the United States due to the American law to reduce inflation. She assured that Brussels is ready to take retaliatory measures to protect the European economy:

“The EU will respond to this law in an adequate and carefully balanced manner. The start of a new trade war is not in the interests of either the US or Europe.”

According to her, the implementation of this law can delay investments in the United States and the supply of rare earth resources, which the EU critically needs, in particular, to continue the development of alternative energy. Von der Leyen urged the United States to “take into account the concerns of Europe” and “ensure closer coordination of actions, as well as interaction in providing Western economies with “critical resources, the extraction and processing of several of which are now entirely in the hands of one country – China.”

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