World

US and European Union officials met for trade and technology talks Monday, but hanging in the balance were heightened tensions over American subsidies for its green industry that Europe considers anti-competitive.

Officials touched on issues such as fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and questions over economic coercion, but all eyes were on Washington’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) during a meeting of the US-EU Trade and Technology Council, held just outside Washington.

The act, designed to accelerate the US transition to a low-carbon economy, contains around $370 billion in subsidies for green energy, as well as tax breaks for US-made electric cars and batteries.

EU countries have poured criticism on the IRA, seeing it as a threat to European jobs, especially in the energy and auto sectors.

Monday’s talks, the third of their kind, are part of a push “to grow the bilateral trade and investment relationship,” according to a National Security Council statement.

Both sides took stock of a dedicated task force’s work on the IRA, noting “preliminary progress made,” said a joint US-EU statement released Monday.

“We acknowledge the EU’s concerns and underline our commitment to address them constructively,” the statement added.

– ‘More solid response’ –

“Clearly they are trying to set out our concerns in a non-confrontational manner,” a European official involved in the talks told reporters Monday.

“It was flagged as a dispute, obviously, to which I think we’re still waiting for a more solid response,” he added.

Asked about “tweaks” mentioned last week by US President Joe Biden — so that European companies would not be unfairly treated — the official said the “assessment is that this will be extremely difficult.”

But officials struck a conciliatory note at a press briefing after their meeting, with the EU’s trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis saying, “Today we are leaving this meeting a slightly more optimistic than we were entering (it).”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a co-chair of the council, added: “The bottom line is this: We are committed to moving forward together not at the expense of each other, but to the benefit of each other.”

Both sides found agreement on a host of other issues, including an information-sharing system on public support for the semiconductor sector to increase transparency.

They also entered a deal to implement an early warning mechanism to mitigate semiconductor supply chain disruptions “in a cooperative way.”

Both parties launched a “transatlantic initiative on sustainable trade” as well, with an aim to decarbonize energy-intensive industries and help with the transition to more circular economies, the statement said.

– Insufficient space –

But EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton had decided not to take part in the meetings, his office earlier said, finding that they no longer give enough space to issues of concern to many European industry ministers and businesses.

Last month, Breton threatened to appeal to the World Trade Organization and consider retaliatory measures if the United States did not reverse its subsidies.

The plan was also a subject of discussions between President Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at a state visit last week.

Biden said both sides have agreed to discuss practical steps to coordinate and align their approaches, though he added that he would not apologize for the act, which he maintains was never intended to disadvantage US allies.

The Trade and Technology Council is co-chaired by Blinken, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Trade Representative Katherine Tai, as well as European Commission Executive Vice Presidents Margrethe Vestager and trade commissioner Dombrovskis.

Proceedings in a trial over a 2009 massacre in Guinea were adjourned for a week on Monday after former dictator Moussa Dadis Camara said he was too ill to give testimony.

Survivors of the bloodbath and relatives of the dead had been eagerly awaiting the moment when Camara would take the stand.

But the former military ruler, who appeared at the bar in civilian clothes and walking with some difficulty, said he was unwell.

“With all the respect that I have for your distinguished tribunal, I have already informed the director of the penitentiary, the head doctor of the penitentiary, (that) I have been ill for some time,” Camara said.

He said he felt “completely weak, from malaria I caught”.

“I’m not above the law but quite sincerely I absolutely think that I can’t (testify) right now.”

Camara and 10 other former military and government officials are accused over the killing of 156 people and the rape of at least 109 women by pro-junta forces at a political rally in a Conakry stadium in September 2009.

They face charges ranging from murder to sexual violence, kidnappings, arson and looting. Camara himself is charged with “personal criminal responsibility and command responsibility.”

Chief judge Ibrahima Sory Tounkara said: “The court cannot force you to say or do something that you do not wish to do… If you say that you cannot give testimony, the court acknowledges this.”  

“You have a week, Mr. Camara,” he said, adjourning the trial until December 12.

The lawyer for Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, a former aide de camp to Camara who has accused him of preparing the massacre, accused Guinea’s ex-leader of faking his illness.

“Our feeling is that Dadis is scared of appearing now because he has been confronted with the reality of the case. That is what leads him to completely fabricate an illness,” lawyer Lancine Sylla told reporters.

One of Camara’s lawyers said his client had been suffering from an exhausting bout of malaria for weeks and that he had the “absolute right” to rest.

– Assassination attempt –

Camara, at the time an unknown captain in the army, seized power in December 2008 shortly after the death of Guinea’s second post-independence president, General Lansana Conte, who had ruled for 24 years.

In December 2009, Camara was wounded in the head in an attempted assassination and headed to Morocco for medical treatment. 

He fled into exile in Burkina Faso, where he was indicted in July 2015 by Guinean magistrates for his alleged role in the stadium massacre.

The former strongman was detained on September 27, a day before the long-awaited trial began in a purpose-built court in the capital Conakry.

Ukraine was targeted on Monday by a new wave of fatal Russian missiles, the latest attack to cause massive power disruptions across the country and pile pressure on its embattled critical infrastructure as temperatures plunge.

Moscow in turn blamed Ukraine for drone attacks which caused explosions at two of its airfields, killing three soldiers.

The attacks came just after Russia shrugged off a Western-imposed price cap on its oil exports, warning the move would not disrupt its military campaign in Ukraine.

While the drone attacks on Russia’s Saratov and Ryazan regions were intercepted, the defence ministry said falling debris had caused the explosions.

At the same time, it claimed a “massive attack on Ukrainian military command systems and related defence, communications, energy and military facilities”.

Fresh power cuts were announced in all regions of Ukraine due to the heavy strikes.

“Due to the consequences of shelling… a regime of emergency shutdowns will be introduced in all regions of Ukraine,” national electricity provider Ukrenergo said on Telegram.  

The head of the central Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, said Russian missiles on Monday had left two people dead.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country’s military had shot down a majority of Russian missiles fired earlier in the day, and engineers had already begun working to restore electricity.

“Our people never give up,” Zelensky said in a video-statement on social media.

Nearly half of Ukraine’s energy system has already been damaged after months of systemic strikes on power infrastructure. 

Ukrainians have frequently been left in the cold and dark for hours at a time when the outdoor temperature has dropped below zero. 

Officials told residents to charge power banks and prepare reserves of water. 

The UN rights chief Volker Turk, who arrived Sunday in Ukraine on a four-day visit, had to move his meetings with activists into an underground shelter in the capital Kyiv as missiles rained down.

– Moscow vows to keep fighting –

As Russia shrugged off the oil price cap, state-run media released footage of President Vladimir Putin driving a Mercedes car across the Crimea bridge that connects the annexed peninsula to the Russian mainland, and was damaged in a blast last month.

The $60-per-barrel price cap agreed by the European Union, G7 and Australia aims to restrict Russia’s revenue while making sure Moscow keeps supplying the global market.

“Russia’s economy has all the necessary potential to fully meet the needs and requirements of the special military operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, using Moscow’s term for the Ukraine offensive.

“These measures will not affect this,” he said.

Russia “will not recognise” the measures, which amounted to “a step towards destabilising the global energy markets”, he added.

The cap is the latest in a number of measures spearheaded by Western countries and introduced against Russia — the world’s second-largest crude oil exporter — after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine over nine months ago.

The measure comes on top of an EU embargo on seaborne deliveries of Russian crude oil that came into force on Monday.

The embargo will prevent maritime shipments of Russian crude to the European Union, which account for two thirds of the bloc’s oil imports from Russia, potentially depriving Moscow of billions of euros.

The oil price cap aims to ensure that when Russia sells its crude to non-EU countries it is not sold for more than $60 a barrel.

The market price of a barrel of Russian Urals crude is currently around $65 dollars, just slightly higher than the cap, suggesting the measure may have only a limited impact in the short term.

Kyiv, after initially welcoming the price ceiling, later said it would not do enough damage to Russia’s economy. 

– ‘Impossible to prepare’ –

The G7 nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — along with Australia have said they are prepared to adjust the price ceiling if necessary.

In recent months, gas prices have skyrocketed since Moscow halted deliveries to the EU in suspected retaliation for Western sanctions and the bloc struggled to find alternative energy suppliers.

In the Ukrainian town of Borodianka, outside Kyiv, where snow has already coated the ground, locals recently gathered around old wood-fired stoves inside tents to keep warm and cook food during the blackouts. 

“We are totally dependent on electricity… One day we had no electricity for 16 hours,” Irina, who had come to the tent with her child, told AFP. 

Volunteer Oleg said it was hard to say how Ukraine would manage in the coming winter months. 

“It is impossible to prepare for this winter because no-one has lived in these conditions before,” he said. 

South Africa’s ruling ANC party rallied around embattled President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, on the eve of a keenly watched parliamentary vote that could lead to his impeachment.

In an eventful day, Ramaphosa, who has been under heavy political pressure, mounted an 11th-hour legal bid to have a damning report on an alleged cover-up of a cash robbery at his farm annulled.

Top African National Congress leaders who had met to discuss his future vowed to stand by the president and oppose any motion seeking to remove him.

“Should parliament proceed tomorrow, the ANC will not support that vote,” ANC interim secretary-general Paul Mashatile told reporters after day-long talks.

Mashatile said the decision to vote “against the adoption of the report” was reached after the ANC’s National Executive Committee “fully and frankly” debated it.

Earlier Monday, Ramaphosa filed a petition to the Constitutional Court seeking to have the investigative report “reviewed, declared unlawful and set aside”, according to papers made available to the media by his spokesman.

Parliament is scheduled on Tuesday to debate the report submitted last week by an independent panel which found that Ramaphosa “may have committed” serious violations and misconduct.

The parliament sitting is a step that could lead to a vote on forcing Ramaphosa from office.

To initiate an impeachment vote would require a simple majority in the National Assembly, where the ANC has 230 out of 400 seats. The impeachment vote itself would need a two-thirds majority to succeed.

In papers filed to the Constitutional Court Ramaphosa petitioned to have the report “reviewed, declared unlawful and set aside” and that “any steps taken by the National Assembly pursuant to the report are equally unlawful and invalid.”

The latest developments mean “the president continues with his duties as president of the ANC and the republic,” said Mashatile.

Ramaphosa will Tuesday be in Cape Town, where parliament is based, but will deliver a keynote address at the World Science Forum, which will be attended by hundreds of delegates.

The president has insisted he would not resign after the special panel’s report, but his political future remains uncertain. He briefly attended the ANC meeting which discussed the crisis.

He left shortly afterwards, smiling and waving to the media, having recused himself from the meeting, in line with standard practice for a person under discussion. 

A small group of supporters and anti-Ramaphosa demonstrators gathered outside the meeting in the Johannesburg area of Nasrec.

Forged by Nelson Mandela into the weapon that led the fight against apartheid, the ANC has been deeply divided by the affair, but after a pendulum swing a majority now seems to be backing Ramaphosa.

– ‘Phala Phala’ –

The scandal has become known as the Phala Phala affair, named after Ramaphosa’s farm in the northeast of the country.

It began in June, when South Africa’s former spy boss filed a complaint with the police alleging that Ramaphosa had concealed the theft of a huge haul of cash from the estate.

He accused the president of having organised for the burglars to be kidnapped and bribed into silence. Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing.

He said the cash — more than half a million dollars, stashed beneath sofa cushions — was payment for buffaloes bought by a Sudanese businessman. 

But his explanations did not convince the independent panel, which raised questions about the source of the cash.

A police inquiry is ongoing, but he has not so far been charged with any crime.

The scandal comes at the worst possible time for Ramaphosa. 

On December 16, he will contest elections for the ANC presidency — a position that also holds the key to staying on as the nation’s leader.

A former mine union president who made a fortune in business in the post-apartheid era, Ramaphosa came to office in 2018 riding on a graft-free image after the corruption-tainted presidency of Jacob Zuma.

The second-largest opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, said it was “disgusted and appalled by the decision of the rogue president”, calling Ramaphosa a “gangster” to challenge the report.

But the ANC’s overwhelming majority in the National Assembly means that it is not even certain that parliament will vote to launch the removal procedure.