After his visit to Normandy to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the American president arrived in Paris at midday. He was welcomed on the Champs-Elysées by Emmanuel Macron.
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LIVE | State visit of the President of the United States of America Joe Biden and the First Lady Mrs. Jill Biden: the welcoming ceremony at the Ac-de-Triomphe. https://t.co/B6wXipAFn4
— Élysée (@Elysee) June 8, 2024
The two presidents laid a wreath and rekindled the flame of the Unknown Soldier before walking down the Avenue des Champs-Elysées accompanied by the Republican Guard.
Joe Biden And Emmanuel Macron must continue their day with a working lunch then meet the press early in the afternoon. A state dinner is planned for the evening at the Elysée Palace after a Franco-American business forum (closed to the press) at the Franco-American Chamber of Commerce which is expected to bring together around a hundred business leaders. President Biden is accompanied by a large delegation of businessmen.
The White House and the Elysée want to present the face of a solid economic partnership but relations between the two in recent years have been mixed
Relations are better than under Donald Trump but let’s say it wasn’t very difficult… On paper, in the speeches, everyone played the card of appeasement, of the return of multilateralism, including economic ones. In reality, it’s more complicated than that. A first example: Donald Trump imposed punitive taxes on European steel and aluminum. Joe Biden had waited a year to lift these taxes but without removing them, they are only suspended until 2025, so it still remains a means of pressure on Europeans today.
Another angry issue, Joe Biden launched his 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a major program of economic reforms officially aimed, as its name suggests, at fighting inflation… In truth, it is a vast state investment plan to support businesses in key sectors. What the United States then wants is to regain market share from the Chinese in key sectors, particularly in green energies, except that these American subsidies also negatively affect European companies. All this reinforces the feeling of European companies that they are collateral damage in the trade war between Washington and Beijing.
In France since Wednesday, the American president participated on Thursday and Friday in the ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings of June 6, 1944. But his actual state visit takes place this Saturday.
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The pomp displayed for this visit should demonstrate the fully regained solidity of Franco-American friendship, three years after the tensions created by the Australian submarine affair. The United States then took away, under France’s nose, a major contract with Canberra.
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“ As war returns to the continent, the two presidents will discuss the unfailing and long-term support to be given to Ukraine », declared the French presidency. Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron both met their Ukrainian counterpart on Friday Volodymyr Zelensky, also present in France for the D-Day commemorations. “ This close coordination on international crises will aim to prepare for upcoming international events, in particular the G7 summit in Italy in June and the NATO summit in Washington in July. », Specified the Elysée, which added that bilateral issues would also be addressed.