The United States ＂beggar thy neighbor＂ angered Europe, and a trade war is imminent？

　　BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua)-The American Inflation Reduction Act has stirred up waves in European politics, and Americans who are bent on the road of trade protectionism are arousing increasingly fierce protests from European allies.

　　American-style beggar-thy-neighbor has angered European lawmakers. Some people have called for suing the United States, while others have moved out the "nuclear option" measures to counter the United States. A trade war between Europe and the United States is imminent?

　　Europe is angry: beggar thy neighbor at the expense of others!

　　In August this year, when the Inflation Reduction Act signed by US President Biden came out, it immediately attracted opposition from many countries, because this package worth more than 400 billion US dollars provided generous tax relief for American companies investing in clean energy, and provided high subsidies for American electric vehicles, batteries and renewable energy projects.

　　America’s "European partners" are complaining. Obviously, these tax credits and subsidies will give American enterprises an unfair advantage and attract relevant industries from the European Union to move to the United States.

　　Many European countries believe that this is a "beggar-thy-neighbor" approach, with the aim of inducing investors to leave Europe. Many people have warned that this "protectionist" legislation may be "discriminatory" to European companies.

　　French President Macron once said angrily that the Inflation Reduction Act was "extremely offensive" to European enterprises. On the first day of his visit to the United States, he bluntly said that the result of the US implementation of this bill would be "harming others and benefiting themselves" and warned that the bill was at risk of "splitting the West".

　　In the face of Macron’s demands, Biden insisted that the United States did not need to apologize to Europe, but could make "fine-tuning", but did not specify specific measures.

　　Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, also issued a severe warning a few days ago that the tax relief provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for consumers who buy American products and manufacturers who produce these products in the United States may "lead to unfair competition, close the market and break the key supply chain".

　　Europe considers "nuclear option"? Is a trade war imminent?

　　Ursula von der Leyen said that the U.S. plan has worsened the transatlantic relations between the U.S. and Europe, which makes people worry about the possibility of a trade war between the EU and the United States, and the EU must respond.

　　In the EU’s proposal, "taking action by yourself" and "protesting against the United States" are two important paths.

　　Ursula von der Leyen believes that the competition between the United States and the European Union "must respect the level playing field" and the European Union should "rebalance the distorted competitive environment caused by the Inflation Reduction Act and other measures".

　　She suggested that Europe should "adjust its own rules for public investment". The EU should also increase its support for domestic industries, invest in renewable energy, and lobby the United States to solve "some of the most worrying problems" caused by the bill.

　　Among European parliamentarians, there are still some people who call for a "hard line" to protest against American policies.

　　Bernd Lange, chairman of the International Trade Committee of the European Parliament, said that it is a waste of time to urge the United States to amend the bill, and the EU "needs to promptly file a complaint with the WTO in the next few months".

　　Marcus Faber, the spokesman of the largest party group in the European Parliament and a German parliamentarian, even shouted that the protectionist policy of Biden’s government is particularly disappointing, and the bill passed by the United States may make the difficult economic situation in Europe "worse".

　　Faber said that if the United States doesn’t give in, the EU will have to put all tough coping tools on the table to show that it is ready to use defensive trade tools. He said, "This must be ‘ Nuclear option ’ No one wants to see such a situation in the current situation, but if the United States goes its own way on the road of trade protectionism, "this will be reasonable."