Biden signals to Macron openness to Inflation Reduction Act ‘tweaks’ to cut reliance on China

Allies close ranks despite differences over climate bill and French president’s earlier criticism of its ‘very aggressive’ provisions

Idea was to bolster America’s position when ‘China decided they’re going to no longer sell us computer chips’, says Biden

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US President Joe Biden welcomes French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Thursday. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Published: 7:30am, 2 Dec 2022Updated: 7:41am, 2 Dec 2022

A day after France’s leader slammed provisions of the US president’s signature climate bill as “very aggressive”, the two appeared to have reached an understanding after their bilateral meeting in Washington on Thursday.

While declaring the US made “no apology” for the law, Joe Biden noted during a joint press conference with Emmanuel Macron at the White House that when “writing a massive piece” of legislation “there’s obviously going to be glitches and a need to reconcile changes”.

“There’s tweaks that we can make that can fundamentally make it easier for European countries to participate and/or be on their own,” Biden said, adding it was never his intention to “exclude folks who were cooperating with us”.

Instead, the “intention was to make sure we are no longer in a position when there was a pandemic in Asia and China decided they’re going to no longer sell us computer chips”, the American leader said.

“We invented the damn things,” he said of semiconductors, adding that “we are going to continue to create manufacturing jobs in America, but not at the expense” of European allies.

Macron, who is on an official state visit to the US, said he was “confident” that “we can work out some of the differences that exist”.