Biden hosting Macron at the White House

Although they are friends, Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron have different views on certain things. As a bad deal for Europe, the French leader is using his visit to Washington to sharply criticize aspects of his ally’s signature climate law.
Biden is honoring Macron with the first state dinner of his presidency on Thursday evening. First, the presidents will hold talks in the Oval Office largely centering on efforts to stay united in their response to Russia’s war in Ukraine and to coordinate their approach to an increasingly assertive China, officials from both sides said.
A 21-gun salute and review of troops was included in a pomp-filled official arrival ceremony that hundreds of people gathered for on the South Lawn on a sunny but chilly morning. The ushers handed out tiny American and French flags to the guests.
Macron and other European leaders are concerned about the incentives in a new climate-related law that favor American-made climate technology, including electric vehicles.
At a luncheon with U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday, he criticized the Inflation Reduction Act, and he repeated his criticisms during a speech at the French Embassy. “While the Biden administration’s efforts to curb climate change should be applauded, the subsidies would be an enormous setback for European companies,” said Macron.
Macron said that the choices that have been made will fragment the West. “The legislation creates such differences between the United States of America and Europe that all those who work in many companies in the U.S. will just think, ‘We don’t make investments any more on the other side of the Atlantic,'” he said.
” addressing climate change and promoting biodiversity are two things that major industrial nations need to do more of,” he said.
On Thursday’s “Good Morning America” interview, Macron stated that the U.S. and France were collaborating well on the war in Ukraine and geopolitics in general, but not on “some economic issues.” He said that the U.S. climate bill and semiconductor legislation created an unfair playing field because they were not coordinated with Europe.
He had criticized a deal reached at a recent climate summit in Egypt in which the United States and other wealthy nations agreed to help pay for the damage that an overheating world is inflicting on poor countries. “We need a more comprehensive approach,” Macron said, “not just a new fund that we decide on that won’t be funded, and even if it is funded, it won’t be allocated properly.”
The European Union has expressed concern that tax credits, including those aimed at encouraging Americans to buy electric vehicles, for the Inflation Reduction Act would discriminate against European producers and break World Trade Organization rules.
Robert Habeck, Germany’s Economy Minister, said on Wednesday that he believes that some aspects of the law are not compatible with WTO rules.
He told reporters in Berlin that he believed that this view was largely shared by those countries that were committed to a multilateral trading order. “The Americans know that the European Commission sees it that way too.”
Macron plans to make his case to U.S. officials against the subsidies, which he believes are crucial for “Europe, like the U.S., to come out stronger … not weaker” as the world emerges from the tumult of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a senior French government official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to preview the private talks.
Officials from the Biden administration have said that the proposed legislation would go a long way in helping the United States meet global goals to curb climate change.
Earlier this month, at a summit in Bangkok, Macron raised eyebrows when he referred to the U.S. and China as “two big elephants” that are on the cusp of creating “a big problem for the rest of the jungle.” His visit to Washington also comes as both the U.S. and France are keeping an eye on China after protests broke out last weekend in several mainland cities and Hong Kong over Beijing’s “zero COVID” strategy.
According to the palace, Macron and his wife, Brigitte, came to the U.S. bearing gifts carefully tailored to their American hosts. These gifts included a vinyl and CD of the original soundtrack from the 1966 film “Un Homme et une Femme,” which the Bidens went to see on their first date.
Harris will host Macron for a lunch at the State Department before the evening state dinner for some 350 guests, a glitzy gala to take place in an enormous tented pavilion constructed on the White House South Lawn.