President Joe Biden and top European Union official Ursula von der Leyen announced progress in defusing the transatlantic trade dispute on Monday and renewed their commitment to support Ukraine against Russia.
In a limited but concrete step, the two leaders announced after the Oval Office talks that negotiations will begin to grant critical mineral access to EU producers to the US market under Biden’s signature program to encourage climate-friendly industries.
He also promised to coordinate generally as the US and EU economies shift to electric vehicles and other green sectors.
Von der Leyen, the president of the European Union Commission, has worked with Biden to craft an unprecedented response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over the past year.
Biden told von der Leyen that the alliance to support Ukraine marked a “new era.”
And in a joint statement later, they said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “thought he would divide us, but we are more united than ever. We stand together in our unconditional support for Ukraine for a long time.
Electric vehicle voltage
However, tensions are rising in Europe over the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a spending bill that has championed US manufacturing in climate-friendly technologies.
Amid EU alarm that “made in America” subsidy requirements will damage the European-based energy and auto sectors, the EU is seeking its own incentives, such as the Green Deal Industrial Plan, to boost the growing sector.
The joint statement showed that Biden and von der Leyen are making progress with a deal to begin discussions on exemptions for European manufacturers who want to export critical minerals for electric vehicle batteries.
“Today we agreed that we will work with critical raw materials that have been sourced or processed in the European Union and give them access to the American market as if they were in the American market. We will work on an agreement,” von der Leyen told reporters after meeting with Biden .
The statement said that “both sides will take steps to avoid disruptions in transatlantic trade and investment flows that may arise from their respective incentives. We fight zero-sum competition so that our incentives maximize the spread of clean energy and jobs.”
China is different
Another difficult area is how to respond to China’s increasingly muscular foreign and trade policies.
The White House said the “challenges posed by the People’s Republic of China” featured in the discussions.
Washington has called on European capitals to be stronger against Beijing – not just diplomatically, but also economically. However, the EU is keen not to break with China, leaving the transatlantic ally somewhat divided on how to move forward.
Elvire Fabry, an analyst at the Jacques Delors Institute, a Paris-based think tank, told AFP that the White House session was an opportunity for von der Leyen to show the EU’s desire to work with Washington, “but not in a follower position, especially when it comes to China. “
“Europe’s position is based on the desire to maintain its own line regarding Beijing.”
However, US officials stressed the cohesion between Brussels and Washington in view of China’s challenge.
“There is an unprecedented alignment between the US and Europe,” he said, predicting the two leaders will call “focus on the need to strengthen our economic security, to respond to concrete threats to economic security” from China.
In their joint statement, Biden and von der Leyen mentioned only China.