Macron Expected To Push Biden On LNG Prices And Inflation Reduction Act

French President Emmanuel Macron is shortly due to arrive at the White House for a state visit with US President Joe Biden.

• Biden will greet Macron before the two conduct a bilateral meeting. Remarks at the top can be viewed here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/
• Macron will be the first French president to be welcomed for two US state visits having first visited during the Trump administration in 2018 where he delivered a perceived repudiation of Trump in an address to Congress.
• Macron is expected to be equally forward with Biden in a dispute over LNG prices and the IRA, which France claims violates principles of free trade.
• France’s ambassador to the US, Philippe Etienne said yesterday: “We are grateful that the United States provides Europe with LNG, but there are issues about the price."
• On the IRA, Etienne said: “It is an EU-wide problem. It is not a French problem... there is built into this new act a number of tax credits that are discriminatory. We consider in the EU that they are incompatible with the World Trade Organization rules and they’re discriminatory against Europeans, your allies.”