(Adds quotes, details on green steel negotiations)
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - European Commission
Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said on Friday that
the bloc wants to move quickly on a trade agreement with the
United States for electric vehicle battery minerals and was
optimistic on reaching a green steel and aluminum pact with
Washington by October.
Dombrovskis, the EU's top trade official, told reporters
that he could not provide any details on timing for reaching a
U.S.-EU deal after Washington and Tokyo's quick agreement in
late March.
The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday is expected to reveal which
vehicles would see reduced access to U.S. tax credits of up to
$7,500 based on the content value of battery minerals and
components that comes from the U.S. or a free-trade partner.
"We're making some progress, but also we're seeing that
those are not easy discussions," Dombrovskis said of the
minerals talks, adding that the EU was pursuing its own
competing subsidies for clean energy technologies.
"We see this U.S.-Japan agreement as a good basis for
discussions, a good basis for the decisions and essentially we
don't see reasons why we should be treated worse than Japan,"
Dombrovskis said during International Monetary Fund and World
Bank meetings in Washington
Dombrovskis, who met with U.S. Trade Representative
Katherine Tai on Thursday, said there has been progress on a
trade agreement with the U.S. on steel and aluminum produced
with reduced carbon emissions.
Dombrovskis said he was "moderately optimistic" that a
deal could be reached by October, a deadline set in October 2021
when they ended a trade war over the "Section 232" national
security tariffs on steel and aluminum imports imposed by former
U.S. president Donald Trump.
That deal included new U.S. import quotas for specific
duty-free volumes of EU steel and launched talks on a global
arrangement to combat "dirty" metals production
aimed at excluding Chinese capacity
.
Dombrovskis said, however, that the key parameters from
the EU side was that the agreement would have to result in
"complete withdrawal" of U.S. tariffs on EU metals as well as
the quota arrangement. Creation of a green metals club would
also need to be compliant with World Trade Organization rules,
he added.
"It's intensive and constructive engagement, so we are
able to move forward," he said.
U.S. officials have
floated the idea
of converting the Section 232 tariffs into a new tariff
arrangement with rates based on the carbon emission of a
country's steel and aluminum arrangement.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
david.lawder.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
