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Biden acknowledges ‘glitches’ with IRA, hinting at possible revision

Biden acknowledges ‘glitches’ with IRA, hinting at possible revision

Posted December. 03, 2022 07:24,   

Updated December. 03, 2022 07:24

한국어

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday (U.S. local time) that there are obviously glitches in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and that it needs to be reconciled." This is the first time President Biden personally mentioned the possibility of an IRA revision.

In the press conference after the summit meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, President Biden said there are "tweaks that we can make that can fundamentally make it easier for European countries to participate (in American electric vehicle (EV) market)." He continued in particular that exemptions had been made for companies that had free-trade agreements (FTAs) with the U.S. and that exemption "was added by a member of the United States Congress who acknowledges that he just meant allies. He didn't mean literally free trade agreement."

The IRA stipulates that starting from 2023, subsidies should be given only for the electric vehicles with batteries using more than the stated ratio of the minerals either produced or processed by the U.S. or nations that have free-trade agreements (FTAs) with the U.S. President Biden remarks suggest that the FTA nations may be extended more generally to U.S allies.

Since the announcement of the IRA, Korean battery companies have been rushing to sign contracts for mineral supplies with countries such as Australia and Chile that have FTAs with the U.S. Experts anticipated that Korea's battery industry may benefit from the remarks as there are going to be more nations to get the supplies of core minerals from for EV batteries such as lithium and nickel.


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