Europe's Surrender
Thoughts on a spectacularly one-sided trade deal between the EU and US
Following on from yesterday’s newsletter which discussed Trump’s apparent trade war success (So Many Losers), here is an update with a few thoughts on the hopelessly one-sided EU-US trade deal that was announced yesterday evening between Donald Trump and Ursula von der Leyen at an awkward meeting in Scotland:
Clearly this deal is a humiliation for the European Union. Brussels has accepted a 15 percent across the board tariff, which would have been unthinkable even three weeks ago when it thought it had reached an agreement for a 10 percent baseline tariff only for Donald Trump to pull the rug at the last minute. Even 10 percent would have been a significant climbdown, given that the EU had initially responded to Trump’s “Liberation Day” 20 percent reciprocal tariff threat by proposing a “zero-for-zero” tariff deal and threatening retaliation if it didn’t get it. For a bloc that prides itself on being a trade powerhouse to have folded so easily and accepted such a one-sided deal is a bl…
