Citation :
The Belgian prime minister has accused the US of an “aggressive” campaign to lure European companies to the other side of the Atlantic with the promise of support under its new green subsidy act. Alexander de Croo told a meeting at the European parliament Tuesday that the US was seeking to undermine EU industry with the Inflation Reduction Act, a €369bn support scheme passed in August. “The US, our partner . . . they call our industry. And they tell them why are you investing in Europe? You should come over to the US. Calling German firms and Belgian firms in a very aggressive way — don’t invest in Europe, we have something better,” he told a seminar of his centrist Renew political group. He later told the Financial Times that the Americans “use the IRA in a very aggressive way to attract investment. You could say it’s fair game, but then you shouldn’t say: ‘Oh, we forgot about the impact on Europe’. De Croo also accused Washington of “bullying” the Netherlands to impose a ban on exports of advanced silicon chipmaking equipment to China. The US is in talks with the Dutch and Japanese, the other countries producing machines that make the most advanced chips. “The interests of the US are not always the interests of the EU,” he told the meeting. Some of our partners don’t like the EU? Why don’t they like the EU? Because it is easy to bully one small country. It is much harder to bully a group of 27. Our unity is our strength.”
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