U.S. Trade Rep.: Green Energy Can’t Rely on Market, It Won’t ‘Provide the Boost’ We Need

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” U.S. Trade Representative Amb. Katherine Tai stated that “with respect to clean energy technology, we have seen that the market operating on its own cannot provide the boost, the turbocharge that’s required to get us into the technology developments that we need.”

Co-host Becky Quick said, “I can understand the idea of wanting to play on a level playing field, but it does seem like we are picking up some of the very tactics that you’re criticizing China for. On this, you talk about things like industries where they have been heavily subsidized by China, but in the same announcement, you put out that we are doing this to protect our investments, our subsidies of the different industries that we’ve chosen to subsidize.”

Tai responded, “The types of support that we are providing and the types of measures that we are taking are on a completely different scale, and they are, at the end of the day, still completely based on market logic of supply and demand. Frankly, with respect to clean energy technology, we have seen that the market operating on its own cannot provide the boost, the turbocharge that’s required to get us into the technology developments that we need. But, on top of that, … is this PRC, Beijing-based economic machine that is artificially tilting the playing field significantly.”

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