Rishi Sunak vows free trade as he is en route to Washington DC
Prime minister Rishi Sunak praises anti-protectionist agenda seemingly at odds with extensive support for the US green energy sector.
Rishi Sunak has promised to vigorously defend free trade on his trip to Washington DC while indicating he will avoid any dispute over Joe Biden’s mass agenda of green subsidies, labelled protectionist by several UK ministers.
Rishi Sunak is on his way to Washington, DC, to meet Joe Biden:
Speaking to journalists on his aircraft to the US on Tuesday, the prime minister implied that the UK’s power in the offshore wind made it an excellent partner in the Biden government’s attempts to cooperate economically in the face of China.
Sunak is readying to meet a series of senior Congress ministers in Washington DC and talk with dozen business people before a bilateral discussion with Biden at the White House to cap the two-day visit.
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Questioned about Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which directs extensive sums in grants and tax credits towards renewable energy, Sunak refused to say whether he would go for some ease in areas of concern, such as the supply of minerals required for green technologies.
“It’s something that he and I have talked about in the past, and you’d expect us to continue discussing it,” the prime minister stated, continuing: “Our record on this is substantial. We’ve created numerous jobs and lowered carbon faster than anybody else.”
Questioned about the so-called new Washington agreement, an IRA-linked idea raised in a speech last month by Biden’s federal security adviser, Jake Sullivan, for the US and other nations to take a near-protectionist path to critical industries in the face of unjust and vicious competition from the likes of China, Sunak spoke up free trade.
Sunak said the UK had “a head begin over everybody” because it started concentrating on decarbonisation before many other industrialised countries and could be a critical player in green energy.
Source – The Guardian
