The US is offering huge incentives to electric car firms, but the UK risks falling behind.
In the dusty cornfields of West Kentucky, an area which had long ago been abandoned as an industrial site is once again coming to life.
The move is part of tectonic shifts emerging in where the world makes everything. It could spark a global trade war between Western allies, as the EU responds to the US plans in kind. It was a play on the efforts to "reshore" domestic production in critical industries, but including allies or "friends" in these rebuilt supply chains.Tellingly, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire, back then talked about reducing dependence, not just on China, but on East Asian allies too.
Former US President Donald Trump took Kentucky by some margin in 2016, and promised to deregulate the industry, abandon climate change efforts and allow the mines to reopen. It did not happen.Mining union boss Steve Earle recognises the targeted nature of the White House's investment drive, channelling new industries to set up close to where the coal mines shut down, going as far as paying former miners their union wages.
To criticism around the world that it is diverting investment from Europe and Asia to the US, deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo says the US wants the rest of the world to follow suit, and praises Canada which has just announced similar extraordinary incentives for electric car makers. One European leader told me the US had said the targeting of European industry was all a "giant accident", and was not meant "aggressively".
But the language used by government appears to be evolving. Just last month cabinet ministers described US plans as "protectionist" and "dangerous", and insisted the UK would not go "toe to toe" with the US.
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