EU-US relations after the Inflation Reduction Act, and the challenges ahead

EPRS invites leading experts and commentators to share their thinking and insights on important topics of relevance to debate in the European institutions. In this paper, Bruce Stokes, visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and associate fellow at Chatham House, offers an overview of US-EU relations since the passage of the US Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. This paper is based on the author's interviews with leading European and US experts and published analysis by major think tanks and journalists on both sides of the Atlantic. The paper discusses current efforts to manage longstanding pre-IRA disputes, the Trade and Technology Council, the US Chips and Science Act and the EU's response, looming issues such as CBAM and critical minerals, and how politics in both the US and Europe may affect the handling of these issues.