Berlin.
The European Union has to react to the fireworks of subsidies in the USA, but it is walking a very fine line.
To put it positively, one can say that the Battle against which it arrived where it belongs at the beginning of 2023: at the heart of industrial policy, and that worldwide. The world cannot be saved with fabric bags for shopping, if at the same time steel is produced in the same way as it has always been.
But it won’t be for the foreseeable future, as far as the good news that the Inflation Reduction Act from the USA and the European response to it bring it. Beyond that, however, the picture becomes less clear. Because even if there are still many Question mark are behind the plan presented by Ursula von der Leyen, it is already clear that the EU has to walk a fine line here.
The European community cannot leave the American surcharge unanswered, too much is at stake for that. Decisive course for the economy of the future will be set in the next few years EU cannot simply pull key sectors from there or create them elsewhere.
Nobody can wish for a real trade war with the USA
But it remains a tricky business that von der Leyen initiated. Develops between EU and USA a real race, not only third countries are in danger of being completely left behind in the attempt to build a climate-neutral economy themselves. If you loosen the rules of the game for national subsidies too much, you also risk increasing the existing imbalances within the internal market. Where economic powers such as Germany and France could demonstrate their strength, smaller countries were then left behind.
And even if both can be avoided, there is always the threat of a scenario in which a real one exists between the USA and the EU trade war breaks loose. Nobody here can be interested in that.
More articles from this category can be found here: Politics
