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BBC Radio 4 - The Other IRA

What is President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act and how might it affect the UK economy?

President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act encourages investment in US green technology, it's seen by many as a return to American protectionism. How will ideas in it affect the UK?

The ‘IRA’ or ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ is the centrepiece of Bidenomics. It’s a massive programme of domestic subsidies and tariffs targeting manufacturing, infrastructure and climate change – what the administration has described as ‘building from the middle out and from the bottom up’ and ‘focusing on creating good jobs for people’.

The Biden administration argues strongly that the world should welcome America’s huge public investments in clean energy. But the reaction of other many countries has been sceptical, even hostile. 

The main concern is that the White House programme of subsidies and tariffs to foster American industry will come at their expense and result in unfair competition. 

Tanya Beckett explores these arguments, and assesses how the IRA has impacted global trade and the economy. The programme will also look at Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to implement a similar bill in the UK and examine whether the global economy has entered a new era as a result of the bill.

Presenter: Tanya Beckett 
Producer: Farhana Haider
 
Contributors 
Brian Deese, President Biden’s former national economic advisor and director of the National Economic council. Institute Innovation Fellow at MIT
Todd Tucker Director, Industrial Policy and Trade at the Roosevelt Institute
Rachel Patterson Interim policy director for Evergreen Action
Sanjay Patnaik Senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings
Harry Crawford Managing member of Diligence Offshore Services
Alan Beattie Senior Trade writer for the Financial Times
Reinhilde Veugelers Senior fellow at the Bruegel Institute
Mathew Lawrence Director and Founder Common Wealth
Kent Smetters Faculty Director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model
Andrew Teverson Managing Director StageBox

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