U.S. efforts to attract tech and clean-energy companies to the country with grants are good news, say Canada and Europe, hoping not to overdo it. fresh — and who are each trying to adapt to a world that seems to want to reorganize itself into “regional blocs”.
“You don’t have to tell a story. The world is changing extremely rapidly,” European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Frenchman Thierry Breton, said at a conference in front of the Council for International Relations in Montreal on Monday.
It is the fault of the invasion of Ukraine, which brutally revealed Europe’s dependence on Russian energy, “but not only”, explained the man who was, among other things, responsible for the supply of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and which has therefore faced Chinese and American protectionism in this area. “We have a block policy now. This is obviously North America. It is obviously Europe. And it’s also China, which is still the elephant in the room. »
What concerns him today is in particular how the hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies offered by the Biden government to companies that will invest in the United States in the semiconductor sectors (through the CHIPS Act), green energies and electric vehicles (thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act) could distort trade, but also how Europe can itself offer advantages likely to convince companies to stay on its territory.
“We want cooperation rather than competition,” said Thierry Breton about relations between Europe and its trading partners.
Canada no exception
Canada, like Mexico, managed to get Washington to admit that it was an integral part of a North American value chain in the automotive sector, including electrics.
But so that companies in other sectors do not choose the United States to its detriment, the federal government will also announce aid programs and subsidies in its next budget, indicated the Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, who shared the stage with the European Commissioner. ” Absolutely. We have no choice,” he said. It’s not about engaging in a race to the highest bidder, he explained, “it’s about making sure you stay competitive.”
“We are not in the process of repatriating everything,” said Thierry Breton for his part during a press scrum, on the sidelines of the conference. No one will do everything alone. But “crises teach us that, to be a good ally, you have to be strong, you have to be solid”.
Good anyway
In fact, despite the “small irritants” that we hope to be able to correct at the end of the negotiations, these new American industrial policies are above all good news, noted the European and the Canadian.
After all, it’s about accelerating America’s transition to green energy and reducing its dependence on less reliable—or more risky—countries in key technology sectors.
It is not normal, for example, that the world depends to such an extent on China for the lithium of the batteries or the rare earths which go into the manufacture of electronic components, or on Taiwan for its semi-conductors, they have valorize. Europe and the United States hope that by 2030 they will be able to produce at least half of the semiconductors they will need.
This geoeconomic context is an opportunity not to be missed for Canada, which can establish itself as an ideal trading partner, according to François-Philippe Champagne. Of course, “governments have to be part of the equation. But you never win with subsidies, ”noted the federal minister in a press scrum. What should really set Canada apart is the quality of its workforce, its industrial ecosystem, its reserves of critical minerals, its renewable energy and its many free trade agreements, not to mention its stability and its predictability, he noted.
Thierry Breton readily recognized the strengths of Canada and Quebec on Monday, he who still had to go to Ottawa after a ten-day mission which also brought him to Africa and the United States. “I’m not saying that because I’m in Montreal. I am in Montreal because there is that. »