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.
Every country should have just stopped trade with the US as soon as this tarriff nonsense started. Big mistake even engaging imo.
I imagine the strategy everywhere is to keep the lid on this while you can shift your trade elsewhere. TBH the shift should have started during the first Trump admin, but to be fair, nobody thought that Trump can out-Trump himself this bad.
Suddenly cutting off a lot of trade suddenly is a stupid and reckless move that would hurt people in their countries as much as it would hurt the US. It’s basically the same behavior as Trump with his absurd tariffs, banning trade with a country, and taxing people obscenely to buy things from that country mostly work out to the same effects in practice.
Incentivizing other trade partners, and maybe slowly disincentivizing the US makes a lot of sense though. Maybe it made more sense years ago, but as they say, if the best time was yesterday, the next-best time is today.
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.
Remember to thank your mentally disabled conservative neighbor.
Just a few weeks away and I’m moving from the US to Sweden. Please US dollar, hold value long enough for me to get a bank account and transfer everything
Iirc they’re trying to put a tax on money leaving the US too.
Jfc, do you have a source on that? I’m going to be so fucked if that’s the case
Nvm think I found it: https://taxfoundation.org/blog/us-remittances-tax-big-beautiful-bill/
Convert everything to like Monero or whatever
Just don’t cave. Once you start down the bitch path, forever will it dominate your destiny.
Always remember: TACO.
When it comes to not being America’ bitch, Europe caved on that a while ago.
That was America BT (before Trump). America TE is like a whole new country. They get a reset.
Message to Europeans from an American.
It’s time to start looking for other trading partners. Canada and Mexico come to mind. So does South America and Africa as a whole. Be ready for us to shit the bed in epic fashion, and make sure you’re not in the poo position. And don’t be afraid to punish us for our BS. Just be strategic with the payback and don’t copy our fails.
It’s time to start looking for other trading
The EU has been doing that. But it’s difficult to replace a 30T economy, representing 15% of the global aggregate of the world’s GDP.
With Tariffs the outcome will always be a big lose world wide. For some more than others.
Add: It’s already been harming USA manufacturers according to this AP article ,
" US manufacturers are stuck in a rut despite subsidies from Biden and protection from Trump. (…).But the factory investment spree has faded as the incoming Trump administration launched trade wars and, working with Congress, ended Biden’s subsidies for green energy. Now, predicts Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, “manufacturing production will continue to flatline.”
i’m preparing for the EU to do nothing
that way if they do anything i’ll be pleasantly surprised
I expect them to prepare a tariff bomb on not only goods but services too that they won‘t unveil unless Trump really follows up on his threats.
Ngl, trump waffling around with tarriffs is already causing major damage to the economy. Companies need to project costs for budgeting to keep their business operational. Him constantly putting out changing information is causing layoffs and all sorts of chaos.
All that to say, they should really nut up sooner than later.
What do we even need from America?
The EU should add 100% tax on American restaurants like mcdonalds and burger king, they are pretty much universal health hazards anyway.
But the EU will back down as it always does.
Chips come to mind. Your next videocard is going to be even more expensive. Not sure if the tariff is applied to digital goods like netflix and youtube premium
I dont use subscription services but graphics card, yes i do.
Should probably plan for the worst case scenario where that trade is eliminated and mitigate it elsewhere as best as possible. America’s leadership has become cancerous, and figuratively speaking, leaning into their isolationism and letting them starve themselves out as a consequence of not understanding how economic globalization works is probably the best shot at real change.
As a european I can only say
Jesus Christ, take a dump or get off the toilet! I’m so sick of this game this idiot plays.
