Joe Biden and I will ‘fix’ this: France's Macron on climate-subsidy conflict

The two leaders discussed the matter when they met in Washington last week, Macron said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he and Joe Biden agreed to “fix” a dispute over the US president’s Inflation Reduction Act, which includes new subsidies for North American-made electric vehicles that allies have criticized.

French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden are seen. (Reuters)

The two leaders discussed the matter when they met in Washington last week, Macron said. Before his talks with Biden, Macron warned that the act risks causing division among western countries and triggering a trade war.

“I can tell you that what we decided with President Biden is precisely to fix these issues -- and they are fixable,” Macron said in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” broadcast Sunday.

Biden told a joint news conference on Dec. 1 there are “tweaks that we can make that can fundamentally make it easier for European countries to participate.”

While Macron declined to elaborate in the CBS interview, he rejected the suggestion that the two leaders papered over the confrontation.

“It’s urgent to fix it,” he said. “We can do it.”