Posted on 05/27/2025 4:20:13 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Donald Trump has run out of patience with Brussels. Effective June 1st, the President announced via Truth Social that tariffs on imports from the European Union will rise to a staggering 50%. Did EU bureaucrats really believe they could quietly let the 90-day negotiation deadline lapse and return to business as usual?
Just as European officials were mentally transitioning into their weekend, Trump dropped a bombshell. The punitive move, he stated, is a response to chronic EU protectionism: discriminatory VAT regimes, “ridiculous” fines on American corporations, currency manipulation, and what he called “unjustified lawsuits.” Brussels, he argues, maintains an artificial export surplus with the U.S. through these tactics.
Since April, we’ve seen Trump using steep tariffs as bargaining chips. These numbers might shift during negotiations. But Brussels seems to have forgotten: diplomacy is fluid, not rigid decree.
Europe’s Subsidy Superstate
Europe’s lackluster response -- beyond a frail threat of retaliatory tariffs -- betrays either ignorance of the gravity of the situation or a mindset so encased in its own ideological bubble that it can no longer decode external reality. The EU’s once-vaunted foresight seems to have met its limits.
Trump’s attack targets the EU’s power core: a sprawling protectionist system tied to a mechanism of subsidies and centralized approvals. The bloc operates much like a secular indulgence market: obey Brussels, accept its regulation-heavy ethos, and you’ll be allowed to do business -- or even politics.
Despite the EU’s talk of a single internal market, it is in truth a patchwork of protectionist engines. Estimates suggest Brussels and its member states together direct over €500 billion annually in subsidies to prop up domestic industries. But these very policies corrode economic dynamism -- something anyone reading European business news can verify.
Trade regulations, climate edicts, and harmonization mandates span volumes.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
And now they are trying to start a world war, again.
They run a large trade surplus with the US. Trump holds all the cards in this standoff.
One in which we do not need to participate.
Or pay for...
I predict they will arrive at the deal Trump wants, such as 10% tariffs in both directions; however, there will be a “Mexican standoff” period with 20-50% tariffs that could last for several months.
It is very unfortunate for anyone in the U.S. who is low on stock and needs to import goods immediately.
Despite the EU’s talk of a single internal market, it is in truth a patchwork of protectionist engines. ... to prop up domestic industries. But these very policies corrode economic dynamism...
Trade regulations, climate edicts, and harmonization mandates span volumes.
Further, kinda describes Canada’s supply management regime and inter-provincial trade barriers.
Elbows up Carneyval, you might be on President Trump’s dashboard after he strikes Pattern Agreements with Britain and the EW
oh no, the ‘free’ traitors aren’t going to like this. They think it’s perfectly fine that foreign countries can abuse American companies trying to import to their nations but it’s an outrage for America to charge a single penny for the foreign country to import into America.
Good for Trump and the US. Sick of Europe.
If I am understanding all of this correctly...
America has been the world’s “cash cow” for decades. Our leaders have done nothing except let it get worse; one wonders why. The Biden graft relationship with Ukraine, and the speculated Biden graft relationship with China, extended strategically across congress, but on a global level, is a disturbing possibility.
Now Trump is correcting it all because he has the understanding, drive and balls to do it. The party is over for them. And because they all need us A LOT more than we need them, they can settle for a correctly sized smaller slice of pie, or they can owe us pie; a lot of pie.
With every step of this process the left and the media (redundant ... I know) have been screaming bloody murder, saying we will all suffer because of Trump’s bumbling ignorance. As this plays out, and the nations that have been screwing us fall in line, They will shut up. But I wonder on the percentages of TDS vs. concern over the ending of kickbacks (similar to their USAID lamentations). Mind you, these are not mutually exclusive. I believe people like Schumer and Pelosi are aware of all of it; they don’t want it to change because the corruption benefits them.
These are suppositions. I welcome your comments, particularly if you know the subject matter well.
Perhaps Khrushchev was correct?
He said that Capitalism doesn’t work unless there is a war going on....................
So if your business buys goods from country A, and country A is one of the ones that lowers their tariffs against the U.S., and thus Trump lowers our tariffs against that country, at that point, you might stock up on goods from that country while you can do it with little to no tariffs. We might be looking at the decline of the JIT (Just In Time) inventory model that most businesses have been doing for decades.
No one wants to listen to the businessman in the White House. I find that sad, but funny.
As Condi Rice once wisely observed about Europe, “their values are not our values.” Before WWII nobody thought twice about Europe as being any kind of partners.
With American lives.
Didn’t the tariff hike get paused for 90 days?
The tariff pause is about done with. Europe has done nothing as per usual.
Yes, paused for 90 days on April 9. I just saw that Trump announced that the tariffs would begin on July 9. I think he previously said it would be in June.
So much for those of US(A), those of us, who have BAD Taste;)
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