(Updates with joint statement)
By Jeff Mason, Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) - Amid trade frictions
between the United States and the European Union, President Joe
Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
agreed on Friday that the two sides would launch talks on
critical minerals used for electric vehicles.
Biden and von der Leyen met at the White House against a
backdrop of European complaints that clean energy subsidies in
the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and others will divert
investment away from Europe and hurt their economies. The war in
Ukraine was also a major agenda item.
Biden's IRA, a $430 billion law that offers massive
subsidies for U.S.-made products and is aimed at addressing the
climate crisis and promoting renewable energy, has prompted
European anger. EU officials say allies should stick together
and form a common front against bigger threats from China.
The Biden administration has sought to address European
concerns while sticking to the core tenets of the law, which
represented a major domestic political victory for Biden upon
its passage.
In a joint statement after their meeting, the two leaders
said they intended to "immediately begin negotiations on a
targeted critical minerals agreement" to ensure that minerals
extracted or processed in the EU would count for clean vehicle
tax credits under the IRA law.
"This kind of agreement would further our shared goals of
boosting our mineral production and processing and expanding
access to sources of critical minerals that are sustainable,
trusted, and free of labor abuses," they said in the statement.
"Cooperation is also necessary to reduce unwanted strategic
dependencies in these supply chains, and to ensure that they are
diversified and developed with trusted partners."
Speaking in the Oval Office at the start of the meeting,
both Biden and von der Leyen underlined the strength of their
partnership, and the unified support for Ukraine and efforts to
hold Russia accountable for its invasion.
"We are not only partners, the European Union and the United
States are good friends," von der Leyen said, highlighting U.S.
support for Europe in finding alternate energy supplies so EU
members could reduce their dependence on Russian supplies.
"We supported Europe’s energy security," Biden said. "And at
the same time, we're driving new investments to create clean
energy industries and jobs, and make sure we have supply chains
available to both ... our continents."
The European Commission last month presented its Green Deal
Industrial Plan in response to the U.S. IRA law, with increased
levels of state aid to help Europe compete as a manufacturing
hub for clean tech products.
Biden said the idea of driving investments and securing
supply chains underpinned both measures.
Jake Colvin, president of the National Foreign Trade
Council, a corporate lobby group, urged the White House to raise
U.S. industry concerns on what he called a "discriminatory
digital sovereignty agenda" aimed at undermining U.S. companies.
"A level transatlantic playing field is critical but that
has to go both ways, he said. "The White House needs to step up
and underscore the need for American companies to be regulated
in the same manner as their European counterparts when operating
on the other side of the Atlantic."
During a December visit by France's President Emmanuel
Macron to the White House, Biden said that bills aimed at
boosting U.S. renewable energy and the semiconductor industry
have "glitches" that can be addressed.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal;
additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Eric Beech and Rami Ayyub,
Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Deepa Babington and Diane Craft)
steve.holland.reuters.com@reuters.net))
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