A number of high-ranking officials of the European Union expressed concerns about the bloc's transatlantic ally over the weekend.
The US Inflation Reduction Act, set to put billions of dollars into environmentally friendly industries in the US, is the subject of the criticism.
According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU must act to address the distortions created by Washington's $430 billion plan and increase state aid to its own companies in order to compete with the US government-subsidized green industry.
The EU must take action to rebalance the playing field where the IRA Inflation Reduction Act or other measures create distortions, according to a speech in the Belgian city of Bruges. In an interview with Italian media on Saturday, European Council President Charles Michel also warned that many European companies will be drawn to the US, especially given the low energy prices there. With the US continuing to fuel the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the EU looks set to endure high energy prices for a long time.
The EU is planning to change its aid rules. The Inflation Reduction Act should make us reflect on how we can improve our state aid frameworks and adapt them to a new global environment, Von der Leyen said.
The beggar-thy neighbor approach of the US should have opened the eyes of EU leaders that the US is not a team player for all its talk of shared values. Uncle Sam is only interested in Uncle Sam. Any care or concern that the US shows to other countries is motivated by the calculation of how it can profit from such solicitude.
This means paying for liquefied natural gas from the Ukraine, which is suffering the collateral damage from the hostilities in Ukraine. For all its talk of partnering with a nation that shares our basic belief that the rules-based order must remain the foundation for global peace and prosperity, the US has repeatedly shown that it will break any rule and throw even its allies to the wolves if it thinks it can gain some kind of advantage by doing so.
The latticework of strong, resilient, and mutually reinforcing relationships that the Joe Biden administration envisions is just a piece of the sky for those gullible enough to believe that Washington is willing to give others a slice.