AFP

President Joe Biden said Thursday US support for green industry was not intended to be at Europe’s expense as he and French leader Emmanuel Macron pledged to surmount a serious transatlantic trade dispute.

Speaking after summit talks at the White House, both stressed cooperation amid European Union concern that Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was anti-competitive and would cost European jobs, especially in the energy and auto sectors.

“We agreed to discuss practical steps to coordinate and align our approaches so that we can strengthen and secure the supply chains, manufacturing and innovation on both sides of the Atlantic,” Biden said in a joint news conference.

Biden said he would not apologize for the $430 billion IRA passed in August that largely focuses investments and investment support on climate and social spending. 

But he said the IRA was never intended to disadvantage any US allies.

Instead, it aimed at strengthening industrial supply chains together with partners like Europe to protect against the kind of economic vulnerabilities that surfaced during the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

“The essence of it is, we’re going to make sure that the United States continues — and just as I hope Europe will be able to continue — not to have to rely on anybody else’s supply chain,” Biden said.

“We are our own supply chain. And we share that with Europe and all of our allies, and they will in fact have the opportunity to do the same thing,” Biden said.

He admitted the legislation is so large and complicated that it unavoidably has “glitches” that need to be worked out.

“My point is, we’re back in business, Europe is back in business. And we’re going to continue to create manufacturing jobs in America, but not at the expense of Europe,” he pledged.

– ‘Resynchronize’ –

Macron acknowledged that the IRA goal of creating jobs and advancing the transition to green energy was “a common objective” shared by Europe.

He said that the IRA’s subsidies for US industry threatened to hurt European businesses, and that a central issue of his talks with Biden was how to “resynchronize” and work together with similar strategies.

After meetings with Biden and members of the US Congress, Macron said he felt that they had the same intent.

“We want to succeed together — not against each other,” Macron said.

“We Europeans need to move faster and stronger to have the same ambition.”

But the two gave no sign of whether they agreed on specific measures.

In early November, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton threatened to appeal to the World Trade Organization and consider “retaliatory measures” if the United States did not reverse its subsidies.

The two sides will address specific issues in a meeting on December 5 of the  EU-US Trade and Technology Council.

If you are “somewhat bloodthirsty” and willing to consider “wholesale slaughter” of vermin then you might be the ideal candidate to become New York City’s new rat czar.

Mayor Eric Adams’s administration on Wednesday posted the job listing for Director of Rodent Mitigation, a position that pays between $120,000 and $170,000 a year.

“Do you have what it takes to do the impossible?” asks the ad, which seeks someone with a “virulent vehemence for vermin” and a “general aura of badassery.”

A bachelor’s degree is a must, as is experience in urban planning, project management or government, and proficiency in spreadsheets.

But above all the successful candidate must possess “the drive, determination and killer instinct needed to fight the real enemy — New York City’s relentless rat population.”

Rats are one of the more unappealing aspects of life in America’s largest metropolis, often seen scurrying between subway tracks and sniffing around garbage bags.

Legend has it that there are as many rats as humans — around nine million — although that figure has been debunked as a myth by a local statistician.

English novelist Charles Dickens complained about the rodents when he visited New York in 1842. 

And a rat shot to internet stardom in 2015 when it was filmed walking down the stairs of a subway station with a slice of pizza in its mouth.

City officials have spent millions of dollars trying to cull the rat population over the years, deploying everything from rodent birth control to vermin-proof trash cans.

During a stomach-turning presentation in 2019, Adams, then Brooklyn borough president, unveiled a machine that drowned the rats in a pool of alcohol-based liquid.

The city also runs a “Rat Academy,” where local residents can learn rodent prevention methods. 

The rats continue to run rampant, however.

Between January and September this year, more than 21,500 sightings were reported to the city’s hotline, up from around 18,000 for the same period last year, according to local reports.

“There’s NOTHING I hate more than rats,” Mayor Adams tweeted Thursday, adding that for someone “your dream job awaits.”

US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron emerged from White House talks Thursday pledging to close ranks in helping Ukraine defend itself from Russia and in facing the “challenge” posed by China.

The leaders issued a joint statement following Oval Office talks during Macron’s state visit, which Biden said demonstrated their countries’ “unwavering” alliance.

They “outlined a shared vision to strengthen security and increase prosperity worldwide, combat climate change, build greater resilience to its effects, and advance democratic values,” the statement said.

The two reaffirmed “support for Ukraine’s defense of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, including the provision of political, security, humanitarian, and economic assistance to Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

“They also reiterate their steadfast resolve to hold Russia to account for widely documented atrocities and war crimes,” the statement added.

On China, they said “the United States and France will continue to coordinate on our concerns regarding China’s challenge to the rules-based international order, including respect for human rights, and to work together with China on important global issues like climate change.”

They also expressed “respect for the Iranian people, in particular women and youth, who are bravely protesting to gain the freedom to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms, which Iran itself has subscribed to and is violating.”

– 21 gun salute –

Despite tensions over transatlantic trade, Macron took pains to emphasize their countries’ deep historic ties and the current partnership in confronting Russia’s Ukraine invasion. “We need to become brothers in arms once more,” Macron said as he was welcomed to the White House.

Service members from the marines, army, air force and even a detachment of soldiers in 18th-century Revolutionary War garb paraded in front of the White House. Artillery fired off a 21-gun salute, sending puffs of white smoke into the clear, chilly December sky.

Standing on a red-carpeted podium with Macron, Biden said “France is our oldest ally, our unwavering partner in freedom’s cause.”

The visit certainly symbolized how Washington and Paris have buried last year’s bitter spat over the way Australia pulled out of a French submarine deal in favor of acquiring US nuclear subs instead.

However, Macron has made clear, in unusually blunt language, that he wants to confront Biden over the issue of trade.

– Trade dispute –

On his first day of the visit Wednesday, when he toured NASA headquarters, Arlington National Cemetery and met US lawmakers, the French leader surprised his hosts with a bitter attack on Biden’s signature policy to boost the US green economy, saying it would “kill” European jobs.

The legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act or IRA, is set to pour billions of dollars into environmentally friendly industries, with strong backing for US-based manufacturers. The White House touts the IRA as a groundbreaking effort to reignite US manufacturing and promote renewable technologies, while breaking Chinese dominance in the field.

However, European Union governments are crying foul, threatening to launch a trade war by subsidizing their own green economy sector.

Macron told Biden it is “extremely important precisely to have close coordination” as the US and EU forge ahead in the booming green economy.

Working towards a carbon neutral economy means “creating a lot of jobs, which means investing a lot in our economies, and we have to synchronize our action,” he said.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted that US advances in clean energy will help Europeans too, saying: “This is not a zero-sum game.”

And in their joint statement, Biden and Macron pledged that a US-European Union task force would aim to further strengthen their “partnership on clean energy and climate through mutually beneficial ways.”

– Menu and music –

Aside from the trade dispute fireworks, most of the visit revolves around kindling the long, if often slightly prickly US-French diplomatic friendship.

The state dinner at the White House will return grand-scale entertainment to Washington in a way not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the capital’s typically busy schmoozing scene.

Grammy-award-winning American musician Jon Batiste will perform at the banquet, which the White House said will kick off with butter-poached Maine lobster, paired with caviar, delicata squash raviolo and tarragon sauce.

The main course features beef and triple-cooked butter potatoes, before leading to the cheese course of award-winning US brands, and finally orange chiffon cake, roasted pears with citrus sauce and creme fraiche ice cream.

Washing all that down will be three different wines — all from US vineyards.

If you are “somewhat bloodthirsty” and willing to consider “wholesale slaughter” of vermin then you might be the ideal candidate to become New York City’s new rat czar.

Mayor Eric Adams’s administration on Wednesday posted the job listing for Director of Rodent Mitigation, a position that pays between $120,000 and $170,000 a year.

“Do you have what it takes to do the impossible?” asks the ad, which seeks someone with a “virulent vehemence for vermin” and a “general aura of badassery.”

A bachelor’s degree is a must, as is experience in urban planning, project management or government, and proficiency in spreadsheets.

But above all the successful candidate must possess “the drive, determination and killer instinct needed to fight the real enemy — New York City’s relentless rat population.”

Rats are one of the more unappealing aspects of life in America’s largest metropolis, often seen scurrying between subway tracks and sniffing around garbage bags.

Legend has it that there are as many rats as humans — around nine million — although that figure has been debunked as a myth by a local statistician.

English novelist Charles Dickens complained about the rodents when he visited New York in 1842. 

And a rat shot to internet stardom in 2015 when it was filmed walking down the stairs of a subway station with a slice of pizza in its mouth.

City officials have spent millions of dollars trying to cull the rat population over the years, deploying everything from rodent birth control to vermin-proof trash cans.

During a stomach-turning presentation in 2019, Adams, then Brooklyn borough president, unveiled a machine that drowned the rats in a pool of alcohol-based liquid.

The city also runs a “Rat Academy,” where local residents can learn rodent prevention methods. 

The rats continue to run rampant, however.

Between January and September this year, more than 21,500 sightings were reported to the city’s hotline, up from around 18,000 for the same period last year, according to local reports.

“There’s NOTHING I hate more than rats,” Mayor Adams tweeted Thursday, adding that for someone “your dream job awaits.”