France says EU’s ‘Made in Europe’ law should not include the UK

‘If you’re not in the internal market, you don’t get the same protection,’ says French minister of policy designed to curb Chinese competition France is leading a push to exclude the UK from the EU’s “Made in Europe” policy that could result in British companies losing out in the race to supply European countries with low-carbon technologies and electric cars. The plans were raised by Andy Burnham when he met the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly earlier this week. The policy, still under negotiation, aims to protect European companies from intense and “unfair” state-subsidised competition from China . But the government fears British companies risk being collateral damage and resolving the issue has become one of Burnham’s top priorities for the EU-UK relationship. One key EU proposal is the Industrial Accelerator Act, which would require authorities spending public money – awarding subsidies or public contracts – to favour European products in sectors such as renewable technologies and electric cars . But there is an intense debate inside the EU on how to define “made in Europe” and how far to include countries such as the UK, Canada and Japan. At a meeting of EU industry ministers in Brussels on Thursday, France pushed for a narrow definition, starting with the EU27.

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