Dr. M on Nostr: It takes (at least) two for a trade war. We know who Trump is, what he is like and ...
It takes (at least) two for a trade war. We know who Trump is, what he is like and what drives him. If the Americans chose that and that's what they want, so be it. They will suffer the most from it. It is not necessary to escalate it even more with the answer "in the same measure" because that answer will hit the domicile population and the economy worse than American companies. We don't have to get into that.
Instead, the EU should remove all tariffs against the US. No, I'm not naive, I no longer believe that it would push Trump to cancel his. For him, "reciprocal tariffs" does not mean equal tariffs, but equalizing the trade deficit. That, by the way, will be an impossible mission, because again we come to the most important thing, the very core of the problem - it is not governments who trade, but citizens. If the citizens of a country don't want to buy cars from another country, for whatever reason, they won't buy them. It's hard for any country to force people to buy something they don't like or don't need at all.
So, the EU should abolish all its tariffs against the USA, but not to please Trump, but to its own citizens. In addition, it should seek partners for a free trade agreement - it could do this with Canada, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Latin American countries, etc. All such efforts, which would increase the possibilities of free trade, would benefit consumers in the European Union. That would be the right answer.
However, it is shown once again that to politicians and bureaucrats, consumers (and that is all of us) are worth much less than the lobbyists of a large company. Companies affected by Trump's tariffs are putting pressure on politicians to respond as strongly as possible to deter Trump or to "protect" these companies even more on the domestic market. It is a completely wrong policy, where the other 99 percent of the people are punished for the benefit of the 1%. There are always more consumers than owners and employees of any factory, but consumers do not have a strong lobby in Brussels or the media. That's why they usually get fucked over.
Instead, the EU should remove all tariffs against the US. No, I'm not naive, I no longer believe that it would push Trump to cancel his. For him, "reciprocal tariffs" does not mean equal tariffs, but equalizing the trade deficit. That, by the way, will be an impossible mission, because again we come to the most important thing, the very core of the problem - it is not governments who trade, but citizens. If the citizens of a country don't want to buy cars from another country, for whatever reason, they won't buy them. It's hard for any country to force people to buy something they don't like or don't need at all.
So, the EU should abolish all its tariffs against the USA, but not to please Trump, but to its own citizens. In addition, it should seek partners for a free trade agreement - it could do this with Canada, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Latin American countries, etc. All such efforts, which would increase the possibilities of free trade, would benefit consumers in the European Union. That would be the right answer.
However, it is shown once again that to politicians and bureaucrats, consumers (and that is all of us) are worth much less than the lobbyists of a large company. Companies affected by Trump's tariffs are putting pressure on politicians to respond as strongly as possible to deter Trump or to "protect" these companies even more on the domestic market. It is a completely wrong policy, where the other 99 percent of the people are punished for the benefit of the 1%. There are always more consumers than owners and employees of any factory, but consumers do not have a strong lobby in Brussels or the media. That's why they usually get fucked over.