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Go ahead, America, give European companies billions

By Chris Bryant

15 Mar 2023 · 4 min read

Editor's Note

In the view of Bloomberg's Chris Bryant, European governments should decline to participate in a subsidies race to the bottom. Instead, they should recognize the upsides of America's largesse.

Barely a day goes by without a company hinting, darkly, that it will build a factory overseas unless taxpayers offer billions of dollars of financial support to keep it close to home.

Long overdue U.S. efforts to tackle climate change and re-shore battery and semiconductor manufacturing are amplifying a corporate subsidy race on both sides of the Atlantic, with businesses unsubtly playing governments off against each to extract more cash. It makes sense, I suppose, but it's all rather infuriating.

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