The European Union has warned that its trade with the United States could be effectively wiped out if Washington makes good on its threat to slap a 30% tariff on goods imported from the bloc.
A tariff of “30%, or anything above 30%… has more or less the same effect. So, practically it prohibits the trade,” Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade commissioner, said as he arrived ahead of an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels on Monday.
Šefčovič said it will “be almost impossible” for the bloc to continue its current level of trade with America if that new tariff rate is implemented on August 1 – the date stipulated by US President Donald Trump in his letter to the EU on Saturday.
The thing I’m wondering about is that even the MIC of Europe and the US is intertwined, inasmuch the US is switching to German rifles from their old M4s, and a significant portion of the F35 is also manufactured in the EU. I wonder if that’s in scope of the tariffs, or if it’s purchased by the US government directly so it would be exempt.
It’s almost a moot point with how many taxable components going into those jet chunks could be impacted by the tariff before the US government procures the finished good. The resulting cost overrun is part of the grift.