French President Emmanuel Macron slammed US trade and energy policies for creating “a double standard” with Europe as resentment builds over the economic price the continent is paying over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“The North American economy is making choices for the sake of attractiveness, which I respect, but they create a double standard” with lower energy prices domestically while selling natural gas to Europe at record prices, Macron said at a news conference in Brussels following a meeting of European Union leaders.
“In addition they allow state aid going to up to 80% on some sectors while it’s banned here — you get a double standard,” he added. “It comes down to the sincerity of transatlantic trade,” he added.
The EU has been chafing over the US stimulus package known as the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides subsidies for electric cars made in North America and provides what European officials say is unfair support for green economy.
The 44-year-old Macron will be hitting these points hard when he visit Washington D.C. for a state visit in early December. That’s a bit more than a year after the bilateral relationship suffered a major blow when Australia dropped a mega deal to buy French submarines in favor of nuclear-powered submarines from the US.
France briefly recalled its ambassador to the U.S., but ties improved after Macron met with Joe Biden in Rome on the sideline of a G-20 summit. Biden pledged to support France in its fight against terrorism in the Sahel, and acknowledged the importance of strengthening EU defense, a long-time battle for Macron. The US and Europe have also forged an extremely close working relationship in responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But cracks are starting to emerge. On Friday, Macron called out US and Norway as energy producers who make “the real superprofits” benefitting from “geopolitical war unearned income.” He said he has discussed the topic “in a friendly way” with his US and Norwegian counterparts.
During a parliament debate, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire criticized the US for selling liquefied natural gas to European companies at “four times the prices at which it sells it” domestically. He was echoing previous comments by Macron, who has said that EU should join with Asian economies to demand that the US and Norway show greater friendship by selling gas at lower prices.
France’s foreign affairs minister Catherine Colonna is traveling to Washington Friday to discuss these issues and gauge the situation before the US midterm elections, a diplomat familiar with the planning said. Colonna will also be discussing Ukraine, US exports of LNG to Europe as the continent seeks to diversify away from Russian fuels, fair competition and the future of the nuclear deal with Iran.
So what exactly is the problem?
I read the article, but it sounds more like a complaint that some people are doing better than others.
Shit happens and you take responsibility for your own mess. Nobody was worrying about how they could give Norway subsidies when oil tanked during covid.
Hey monsieur Macron don’t you think is a tiny little bit hypocritical to accuse a double standard when the French, German, Dutch, Italian, Austrian companies are still enjoying the Russian blood money cash profits?
Are you still refusing to call what Russia is doing a genocide?
Are you still asking not to humiliate Putin?
After you f*cking enjoyed the double standard since 2014 now you have the f*cking nerve to preach high morals about double standard?
**It’s a f*cking double standard to ask me about my home temperature while you still allow your friendly companies to cash Russian blood money.**
America put Europe in fire and they just watch from far and they earn huge money.
Well done Europe, you are stupid.
We have been warned to diversify our energy resources.
We did nothing because RuZZian oil and gas was so cheap.
Now our politicians are trying desperately to find a scapegoat for their own mistakes.
I’m not sure what Macron wants, tbh. US companies are not beholden to the Feds; does he want the government to make laws to force them to drive down prices? I suppose the US could do that, but that would be bizarre considering that the US has tried to push for more diverse energy sources in Europe for years now.
The US is sending billions to Ukraine, so the US isn’t being hypocritical here.
God, I can’t believe I am about to do this, but I have to defend the fuel companies here. He calls it an unearned profit, and from one sense it is, but it’s also not. A lot of the companies in this sector were losing money for years with investors having to put in more money or else let the companies go bankrupt. The companies earning money now are the ones that were able to survive until this point. If not for those people willing to take the risk and put money in when they were losing money, we would be completely beholden to OPEC+ right now.
Also, bringing up the inflation reduction act in this context is disingenuous at best. It just passed. Almost nothing in it is actually effecting priced right now. If they are worried about unfair competition for car manufacturing in the future, fine, but the US shouldn’t be where they are concentrating. China just passed Germany in terms of car exports. A lot of those NEVs are coming to flood the European market and kill off competition. THAT should be what they are worried about, not American cars that are probably too big to even fit on European roads.
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French President Emmanuel Macron slammed US trade and energy policies for creating “a double standard” with Europe as resentment builds over the economic price the continent is paying over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“The North American economy is making choices for the sake of attractiveness, which I respect, but they create a double standard” with lower energy prices domestically while selling natural gas to Europe at record prices, Macron said at a news conference in Brussels following a meeting of European Union leaders.
“In addition they allow state aid going to up to 80% on some sectors while it’s banned here — you get a double standard,” he added. “It comes down to the sincerity of transatlantic trade,” he added.
The EU has been chafing over the US stimulus package known as the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides subsidies for electric cars made in North America and provides what European officials say is unfair support for green economy.
The 44-year-old Macron will be hitting these points hard when he visit Washington D.C. for a state visit in early December. That’s a bit more than a year after the bilateral relationship suffered a major blow when Australia dropped a mega deal to buy French submarines in favor of nuclear-powered submarines from the US.
France briefly recalled its ambassador to the U.S., but ties improved after Macron met with Joe Biden in Rome on the sideline of a G-20 summit. Biden pledged to support France in its fight against terrorism in the Sahel, and acknowledged the importance of strengthening EU defense, a long-time battle for Macron. The US and Europe have also forged an extremely close working relationship in responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But cracks are starting to emerge. On Friday, Macron called out US and Norway as energy producers who make “the real superprofits” benefitting from “geopolitical war unearned income.” He said he has discussed the topic “in a friendly way” with his US and Norwegian counterparts.
During a parliament debate, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire criticized the US for selling liquefied natural gas to European companies at “four times the prices at which it sells it” domestically. He was echoing previous comments by Macron, who has said that EU should join with Asian economies to demand that the US and Norway show greater friendship by selling gas at lower prices.
France’s foreign affairs minister Catherine Colonna is traveling to Washington Friday to discuss these issues and gauge the situation before the US midterm elections, a diplomat familiar with the planning said. Colonna will also be discussing Ukraine, US exports of LNG to Europe as the continent seeks to diversify away from Russian fuels, fair competition and the future of the nuclear deal with Iran.
So what exactly is the problem?
I read the article, but it sounds more like a complaint that some people are doing better than others.
Shit happens and you take responsibility for your own mess. Nobody was worrying about how they could give Norway subsidies when oil tanked during covid.
Hey monsieur Macron don’t you think is a tiny little bit hypocritical to accuse a double standard when the French, German, Dutch, Italian, Austrian companies are still enjoying the Russian blood money cash profits?
Are you still refusing to call what Russia is doing a genocide?
Are you still asking not to humiliate Putin?
After you f*cking enjoyed the double standard since 2014 now you have the f*cking nerve to preach high morals about double standard?
**It’s a f*cking double standard to ask me about my home temperature while you still allow your friendly companies to cash Russian blood money.**
America put Europe in fire and they just watch from far and they earn huge money.
Well done Europe, you are stupid.
We have been warned to diversify our energy resources.
We did nothing because RuZZian oil and gas was so cheap.
Now our politicians are trying desperately to find a scapegoat for their own mistakes.
I’m not sure what Macron wants, tbh. US companies are not beholden to the Feds; does he want the government to make laws to force them to drive down prices? I suppose the US could do that, but that would be bizarre considering that the US has tried to push for more diverse energy sources in Europe for years now.
The US is sending billions to Ukraine, so the US isn’t being hypocritical here.
God, I can’t believe I am about to do this, but I have to defend the fuel companies here. He calls it an unearned profit, and from one sense it is, but it’s also not. A lot of the companies in this sector were losing money for years with investors having to put in more money or else let the companies go bankrupt. The companies earning money now are the ones that were able to survive until this point. If not for those people willing to take the risk and put money in when they were losing money, we would be completely beholden to OPEC+ right now.
Also, bringing up the inflation reduction act in this context is disingenuous at best. It just passed. Almost nothing in it is actually effecting priced right now. If they are worried about unfair competition for car manufacturing in the future, fine, but the US shouldn’t be where they are concentrating. China just passed Germany in terms of car exports. A lot of those NEVs are coming to flood the European market and kill off competition. THAT should be what they are worried about, not American cars that are probably too big to even fit on European roads.