Could UK be drawn into a green trade war with US?

By Faisal Islam

Economics editor

When the US Congress passed Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act last summer, the bill seemed built on good intentions. Designed to boost America's green economy and tackle climate change, the act included billions of dollars of subsidies for the purchase of electric cars and other eco-friendly products.

But a provision that those subsidies will only be available to consumers who buy American-made products has enraged many European nations. They see it as a thinly-disguised attempt to grab a share of Europe's high tech manufacturing sector, including Britain's, by luring European companies to relocate factories to the US.

Welcome to the global race for dominance of green technology, where the future of the planet and the global economy are entwined in a potentially risky geopolitical game.

It is the US and the EU at loggerheads, but some East Asian nations are registering their displeasure too, and some in British business are wondering exactly where the UK stands in this growing row.