Foreign Trade – The European Union expects an agreement with the United States of America in a dispute over battery subsidies – Economy

Brussels / Augsburg (dpa) – The European Union Commission expects to conclude an early agreement with the United States in the dispute over American subsidies for the production of electric car batteries. EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis of the “Augsburger Allgemeine” website https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/ said that this is “at hand”, said the vice-president of the European Commission. “We still have significant differences in the field of renewable energies and hydrogen. There is still work to be done.”

The former Latvian Prime Minister stressed that the United States and the European Union are still trying to defuse many points of contention over the US “inflationary law”. March is a crucial month. Dombrovskis said the US Treasury Department would then issue guidance on the plans and see what was achieved.

Many points are still open

According to him, there was “good agreement” on tax cuts for US electric cars: “The rental of electric cars should be exempt from the discriminatory provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. This also helps European companies that provide services to the United States.” There are many open points.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the United States is a law that also provides high tax incentives for electric vehicles and renewable energies. The US support package, which is scheduled for ten years, has a size of $370 billion (currently €346 billion).

European Union countries fear that the IRA program could give the United States a competitive investment advantage. For this reason, several countries, including Germany, have called for a relaxation of the European state aid law in order to preserve production sites in Europe. In the future, the EU wants to allow member states more targeted subsidies to companies so they can compete with the United States and China in climate-friendly technologies. Assistance procedures must become simpler and faster.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 230223-99-702427/3