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The Europeans are getting concerned about trade and the program Joe Biden named as the Inflation Reduction Act:

EU parliament trade chief calls for tariffs on US hydrogen

5 July 2023

EU lawmaker and head of the European Parliament’s trade committee Bernd Lange (S&D) is calling for taxes to be imposed on US-produced hydrogen – a move Lange views as the bloc’s response to the €370 billion US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) aimed at increasing green investments.

IRA, a programme offering subsidies and tax credits to producers of clean tech, such as hydrogen, wind turbines and electric vehicles, has been heavily criticised by EU lawmakers as it includes “Buy American” clauses favouring domestic production.

Lange, head of the EU Parliament’s powerful Committee on International Trade, has now called for a more assertive approach to EU trade policy …

“Therefore, we will tell our American friends that we will not accept these illegal subsidies – which are also illegal within the WTO framework – and we will initiate anti-dumping measures accordingly,” he added. https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/eu-parliament-trade-chief-calls-for-tariffs-on-us-hydrogen/

Biden’s hydrogen bombshell leaves Europe in the dust

July 5, 2023

European leaders have devoted tens of billionsof dollars toward encouraging production of hydrogen, a clean-burning fuel that advocates say will create jobs and help fight climate change.

But now, many of those jobs will be going to the United States instead. …

Nel CEO Håkon Volldal told POLITICO, pointing to the benefit of being close to customers and partners like General Motors, as well as the financial benefits of the IRA, the Biden-era CHIPS and Science Act that provides funding for technology development, and Michigan’s own grants for green tech.

“If you take the IRA and the CHIPS Act together, we’re talking about more than $400 billion,” Volldal said. “On top of that, you have subsidies for renewable power and so on. Europe is dwarfed by the numbers we see in the U.S.” …

The White House has spent months responding to European criticism that its landmark energy policy is unfairly stealing business from U.S. allies on the continent. …

Complaints from Brussels that the U.S. is stealing the industry away with larger incentives than the EU can manage are “junk rhetoric,” insists Pavel Molchanov,aHouston-based managing director and equity research analyst for the investment bankRaymond James. “If European governments want to have more green hydrogen, write more checks.”

That’s unfair to those who led the way in creating this industry, said Chatzimarkakis, the Hydrogen Europe CEO. “As Europeans, we started it, and it was hard work,” he insisted. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/05/biden-hydrogen-europe-00104024

Yes, many in the EU think what the USA is doing is wrong and illegal.

Notice also the following from last December:

The EU is beginning to wake up and realise that its relationship with the U.S. has reached farcical levels of master and slave.

Remarkably, the EU is beginning to wake up and realise not only that it is more servile to the U.S. than ever before, but in fact the relationship has reached farcical levels of master and slave since the Ukraine war started. And yet, despite the EU’s chief diplomat recently refusing to be drawn into a conflict scenario with China and MEPs pathetically voting to deem Russia a terrorist state, it was not the EU which came to the conclusion. It was the French president Emmanuel Macron.

Nine whole months since the war started in February of this year, Macron is beginning to see that he has been outplayed by the incumbent buffoon in the White House. Yes, ‘Where Am I going Biden’ is actually not as dumb as he looks or acts. The true winner of the Ukraine war is America by far which has made Europe dependent on its LPG, while it is Europeans who are reduced to living like refugees in their own countries once the cost is passed on. …

But worse than simply being the slave in the relationship which prospers his master, the French president is also narked about new tax breaks which are being given to industries in the U.S. which linked to green jobs, rather awkwardly an acronym of an Irish paramilitary organisation, the IRA.

Biden’s ‘inflation Reduction Act’, is at first glance quite smart. But it will hit European companies even harder, leading many to question firstly whether it is anti-competitive under WTO rules and secondly whether Biden is hoping the new initiative will drive EU companies to relocate to the U.S. and create even more jobs for Uncle Sam.

Or IRA – new legislation designed to grow green jobs in the U.S. with tax credits for electric cars and clean energy manufacturing in North America.

“The level of subsidies is now two to three times higher in the U.S. than in Europe. We are totally aligned in this conflict. We work hard. And I think if the day after the conflict the result is to have a weaker Europe because a lot of its industry will have been just killed. I do believe it’s not the interest of the U.S. administration and even the U.S. society,” Macron said. “I think the main interest is obviously to protect your middle classes, which is a very fair one. I – I do the same for my country. And it’s to be competitive vis-à-vis China. But the result of the recent decision on this momentum, I would say, is it’s bad for Europe.”

Ursula von der Leyen agrees with him and has also been vocal about taking countermeasures to give EU companies a level playing field. …

Old Europe needs a reset with the U.S. But will it be the EU who takes the initiative to do this …? https://strategic-culture.org/news/2022/12/06/eu-just-woke-up-and-realised-it-was-america-bitch-reset-needed-claims-macron/

So we continue to hear complaints, from and about European leaders, that the USA is violating various trade rules and causing friction. Here is a link to something posted here last month about that: CNBC: EU says it has serious concerns about Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Furthermore, the Europeans believe that the USA is profiting too much–at Europe’s expense–because of fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict (see Politico: Europe accuses US of profiting from war).

The USA is causing major friction with the EU.

Item number 8 of my 23 items to prophetically watch in 2023 had the following:

8. Trade

Not all warfare is militaristic. There is also economic warfare.

This often involves trade. …

Expect more trade conflict between Europe and the USA and UK.

Here is something from my book Biden-Harris: Prophecies and Destruction:

Trade

But beyond that, many Europeans have been incensed because of the election of Donald Trump. And still are:

“You will never rewind history,” the E.U.’s Vice President and foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told TIME in a Nov. 16 interview. Four years of President Donald Trump, who labeled the bloc a “foe” and has slapped tariffs on European goods, has left Europeans with a lasting sense that U.S. support is not necessarily dependable, he says. “Trump has been a kind of awakening. And I think we should stay awake,” Borrell says. “We cannot say ‘oh Trump is no longer there, we can go back to our previous state of mind.’”[i]

Notice also the following:

Europe Won’t Get Any Relief on Trade From Biden … a President Biden would do as little as possible on trade. But the world will not stand still. … Europe would be … challenging.[ii]

Now, we would expect trade negotiations with Europe to continue and some type of agreements will happen.  In the spirit of accommodation and personal interest, many of the “standards” of the European Union will be adopted by the U.S.A., as well as by nearly all of the countries of the world.  The Arab nations will most likely agree with many of the standards as they seem to be destined to form a brief end-time alliance with the Europeans.

Yet, misunderstandings and differences of opinion will occur.

Trade wars and/or serious trade disputes will most likely arise.

It is likely that trade issues will be a factor in Europe ultimately turning against the U.S.A.

[i] Walt V. ‘Trump Has Been a Kind of Awakening.’ E.U’s Top Diplomat Says Europe’s Relationship With U.S. Is Forever Changed. Time, November 17, 2020

[ii] ^{Alden C. China and Europe Won’t Get Any Relief on Trade From Biden. ForeignPolicy.com, November 6, 2020}

Here is something from my book Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America?:

Notice also:

Top European officials are furious with Joe Biden’s administration and now accuse the Americans of making a fortune from the war, while EU countries suffer.

“The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the U.S. because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons,” one senior official … The U.S. rejected Europe’s complaints. …

“The Inflation Reduction Act has changed everything,” one EU diplomat said. “Is Washington still our ally or not?” [i]

From fossil fuel prices, to raising interest rates, to subsidizing ‘green energy,’ the USA has upset Europe on trade issues in 2022.

[i] Moens B, et al. Europe accuses US of profiting from war. Politico.eu, November 24, 2022

Bernd Lange used the expression “our American friends” in a somewhat negative way. Well, consider that the Bible shows that the USA will have its friends become enemies:

1 How lonely sits the city
That was full of people!
How like a widow is she,
Who was great among the nations!
The princess among the provinces
Has become a slave!

2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
Her tears are on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers
She has none to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies. (Lamentations 1:1-2)

The old Worldwide Church of God published the following:

An ancient warning was applied to the biblical nation of Judah that could be a solemn warning to modern America:

“How does the city sit solitary, that was full of people! How is she become as a widow! She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers [allies] she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies” (Lamentations 1:1-2). (Armstrong HW. Modern Romans. Ambassador College Press, 1975)

America’s decline … And eventually—as the editors of this magazine have repeatedly warned from the pages of the Bible—national captivity. “She that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the cities has become a vassal” (Lamentations 1:1). (Hogberg GH. America – A Paper Tiger? Plain Truth, January 1980)

Trade issues have turned allies into enemies before and will be a factor again.

Trade, which was a trigger for Japanese and USA involvement in WWII, will be a factor in what can be called World War III–and this war will be a conflict with Europe (but the ‘shooting’ aspect of this will not happen before 2026; for some details, see When Will the Great Tribulation Begin?).

Europe is not pleased with the USA on various trade issues and, one day, will take steps most do not imagine (cf. Daniel 11:39).

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 5th, 2023 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Prophecy.

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