Statement by Ambassador John Bruton on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 and H.R. 3183

WASHINGTON--Ambassador John Bruton, Head of the European Commission Delegation to the United States, issued the following statement today to raise concerns about "Buy American" provisions included in the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 and similar provisions found in House Resolution 3183:

The House of Representatives on June 26, 2009, approved the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which directs the U.S. Department of Energy to provide financial assistance to U.S. car manufacturers involved in the development and production of electric vehicles.

We welcome and encourage the production of electric cars and similar green vehicles – a key objective of the European Union and an important part of our strategy to combat global warming. However, limiting financial assistance to American producers rather than allocating the resources to the best and most competitive manufacturers is both protectionist and wasteful. American tax payers would simply not get the most bang for their bucks and it would limit the expertise and knowledge available to make this important project truly successful.

When reviewing this bill, the Senate should ensure as open and fair a competition as possible.

A similarly troubling protectionist provision can be found in House Resolution 3183 (passed on July 17, 2009), which stipulates that "none of the funds made available in this Act may be used to purchase passenger motor vehicles other than those manufactured by Ford, GM or Chrysler." To ignore other American-made passenger vehicles and passenger vehicles manufactured by automakers outside of the U.S. is simply bad environmental policy, bad appropriations policy and bad economic policy.

Notwithstanding the issue of their compatibility with U.S.-WTO obligations, the current language of these two pieces of legislation would go against the commitment made by all G20 members. It would send the wrong signal to all producers worldwide, which in turn could lead to similar protectionist measures adopted by other countries, hurting U.S. exports and delivering another blow to world trade at this critical juncture for the economy. I call upon Congress to do the right thing and rectify the situation before final passage of this legislation.