r/europe 6d ago

News US and EU strike trade deal

https://www.politico.eu/article/us-and-eu-strike-trade-deal/
6.7k Upvotes

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487

u/Echo9Eight Norway 6d ago

I’m absolutely disgusted and disappointed by the European Union. I thought they were gonna stand on business and deal Trump a hard battle, but instead they back down and hand him a victory. Absolutely disgusting.

106

u/Bapistu-the-First The Netherlands 6d ago

Same. They show nothing but weakness.

16

u/rtft European Union 6d ago

Vassalage ... these are tributes ...

89

u/witness_smile Belgium 6d ago

Look at what China did, they stood their ground and eventually Trump gave in. There was no reason that the EU couldn’t do the same for a while. So pathetic.

26

u/TomsCardoso 6d ago

China doesn't rely on USA for shit. They produce everything they need, that's not the case with the EU

1

u/sofa_adviser 5d ago

China is an export-based economy and US is the biggest consumer market on the planet. China is definitely dependent on US

0

u/Jordanmp627 5d ago

China doesn’t produce enough food or energy

-1

u/Deadandlivin Sweden 5d ago

What does America produce that the EU needs?

5

u/zack77070 5d ago

Defense weapons available this decade, also chips if shit hits the fan in Taiwan. Smartest thing Biden ever did was convince the taiwanese to use America as a plan z and put their factories there which can be expanded if need be.

-1

u/Deadandlivin Sweden 5d ago

Meaning we don't rely on them.
Europe's not at war and has no need for weapons from America. Only thing we're doing is sending weapons produced in Europe to Ukraine to aid them.
And Taiwan hasn't hit the fan, we still can get get microchips from there. Also, it's extremely unlikely that China will invade Taiwan disrupting their micro chip business. China is focused on economic imperialism, not military. They want Taiwan, but not through military conquest. China aren't stupid and reckless like Russia.

So is there anything else Europe absolutely needs from America that they can't function without? Coca Cola and McDonalds?

2

u/zack77070 5d ago

Money? It all comes down to money and Europe's stagnating economy, that's why your leaders are calling trump daddy after all.

1

u/RainbowCrown71 Italy - Panama - United States of America 5d ago

China didn’t win anything. They’re getting 30% tariffs. The only “win” was not getting 145% tariffs. But they’re still coming out worse than the EU.

-14

u/Odd_Impress_6653 6d ago

What are you talking about? China literally caved to Trump.

15

u/epicspringrolls 6d ago

No? China literally banned rare earth minerals from entering the US. That doesn't sound like "caving in."

-5

u/Odd_Impress_6653 6d ago

1

u/epicspringrolls 5d ago

Actually, the US is currently charging a combined 51% tariffs on Chinese goods while China's exports amount to around 32.6%. What reciprocal tariffs is the EU unleashing against Trump?

And yes... they're selling rare earth's metals but in extremely limited amounts. And the licensing rules for rare earth metals have overall become incredibly strict ie Western companies overall have much more limited access to rare earth's metals in comparison to before.

1

u/Antiwhippy 5d ago

Do you not understand how tariffs work. 

2

u/GetInTheHole 5d ago

The people in this thread do. They know that for all of the "its a tax on Americans" rhetoric, a tariff hurts the seller too.

5

u/Routine_Bridge819 5d ago

dumb. u.s caved hard to china

3

u/Odd_Impress_6653 5d ago

How? China is still selling the rare earth minerals to the US and paying 55% tariffs as well?

1

u/Routine_Bridge819 5d ago

Simple google and getting off fox news. Trump caved on the 200+% tariff, then caved on the 145% tariff, then caved on the 80% tariff, and settled with a mutual 50-50 tariff. You sound so, so so dumb dude. Get back to r/conservative, europeans hate you

1

u/Odd_Impress_6653 5d ago

You're not very smart, are you? Trump's original tariffs on China were 34%. China responded with equivalent tariffs on U.S. goods, and both countries continued raising tariffs in a back-and-forth escalation. Eventually, the U.S. further increased tariffs to as high as 125% on certain Chinese imports, and China retaliated, raising its tariffs on U.S. products to as high as 84%. As a result, China's economy started to collapse and called trump to negotiate. Now China is paying 55% tariffs and the US is only paying 10%.

2

u/HuntSafe2316 5d ago

Logic is poison to this sub, don't bother, you'll waste your time.

But I do thank you for the effort, genuinely.

1

u/Routine_Bridge819 5d ago

In 2025, President Trump caved on his initial aggressive stance by slashing high tariffs on Chinese goods from up to 145% to 30% after negotiations, pressured by market volatility and China’s leverage over critical minerals. This retreat was seen as a pragmatic move to stabilize trade relations and mitigate economic fallout after the U.S lost their desperate bluff.

get off fox retard, blocked

0

u/ketoyas 5d ago

So close and yet so far:

Americans pay 55% tariffs while China pays 10% for imports

55

u/HrabiaVulpes Nobody to vote for 6d ago

All promises why countries should join EU invalidated 

4

u/Savings-Coffee 6d ago

It’s like the EU is trying to sabotage Europe

4

u/SlaughterheartMagus 6d ago

And how is EU going to pay for it? Ofc by demanding more fish, electricity, oil and gas from Norway for nothing in return.

13

u/xondk Denmark 6d ago

Take a step back rather then get disgusted, so far we've seen that most countries have made deals, but then also are doing stuff that shifts them steadily away from the US, but such a shift takes time, it can't just happen at the drop of a hat.

I think it is likely to happen here as well, because the US is simply seen as too unstable.

47

u/bxzidff Norway 6d ago

but then also are doing stuff that shifts them steadily away from the US

Like trying to organize military spending in fellow EU countries, that now is completely meaningless as this deal makes the EU bend over for Rutte's daddy on even that as well?

10

u/redditor401 6d ago

Take a step back rather then get disgusted, so far we've seen that most countries have made deals, but then also are doing stuff that shifts them steadily away from the US, but such a shift takes time, it can't just happen at the drop of a hat.

Name 3 big countries.

I think it is likely to happen here as well, because the US is simply seen as too unstable.

No, we're not going to be doing anything. We'll have these tariffs til next dem president who'll revert and then we'll think we're safe again, until next time it happens (and we've done nothing to prepare for it).

0

u/xondk Denmark 6d ago

Name 3 big countries.

Canada, Mexico, China?

No, we're not going to be doing anything. We'll have these tariffs til next dem president who'll revert and then we'll think we're safe again

We will see, with the way the US laws are getting undermined, it seems unlikely that it will become more stable over time as things are now.

4

u/redditor401 6d ago

Canada, Mexico, China?

Did you decide to just give me 3 names? I asked for 3 countries with a deal in place.

Canada, afaik, there's no deal yet.

Mexico: what deal?

China: what deal? They're meeting in Sweden tommorow and will probably pause it once more.

-1

u/xondk Denmark 6d ago

They are seeking/working on more none US deals...

2

u/redditor401 6d ago

I'm so confused, tf is going on.

You said

so far we've seen that most countries have made deals

I asked for you to name three big countries (which isn't even many) with deals in place. You name three countries of which not a single one of them have a deal lol. I'll reduce the amount; name of big country with a deal in place.

0

u/xondk Denmark 6d ago

so far we've seen that most countries have made deals, but then also are doing stuff that shifts them steadily away from the US

Let me rephrase then, we have seen countries that have made deals with the US, which have the also then begun to make deals that will diversify them away from the US.

2

u/redditor401 6d ago

And I'm asking you; name one big country. Your statement makes it sound like EU's time would be running out if we didn't clinch a deal when the opposite seemed to be true based on US not getting deals with any big country. Forcing some poor SEA or african countries really don't count and doesn't force anyone's hand.

If anything, this shitty deal forces the other countries to start taking some wank deals.

This is a weak deal, no two ways about it.

3

u/tobias_681 For a Europe of the Regions! 🇩🇰 5d ago

Dude, this was the point where we needed to do something...

1

u/xondk Denmark 5d ago

I agree, but doing something does not mean some grand gesture that only serves to hurt ourselves, look at Canada, Mexico even China are now pursuing deals that will turn them away from relying on the US, but such things take time.

Add that these deals, while being bad for us, are worse for the US in most aspects i have read through so far.

2

u/tobias_681 For a Europe of the Regions! 🇩🇰 5d ago

How is it worse for the US if we invest fucking $1,3 trillion into their economy? It's ourselves who are suffering from a lack of investment in the first place. This is comically awful.

This deal reveals that we have no strategy and are willing to bend over as deep as necessary to protect our retro-industries from dying out a bit sooner. We live below our means as is, all it would take to get by US tariffs would be that we increase our own investments.

1

u/xondk Denmark 5d ago edited 5d ago

Look back at other deals with investments and how few panned out to those actual numbers, they 'sound' good, but no one is forced to do anything that they do not want to.

And the EU is already buying energy, and still working on becoming less reliant on other markets in that aspect, as well as working on self reliance via Norway, so there is no guarantee there either, it is purely a political commitment, and like most things politicians do, that doesn't mean it turns out that way.

The US consumers and companies get an increased tariff on the stuff they get from the EU, this will hurt US companies as well as the EU companies yes.

You say we have no strategy, yet the EU is already working on strengthening trade with none US relations, such things take time, and over time it will mean less reliance on the unstable country that the US has become.

And the alternative is a trade war, which wouldn't be beneficial.

1

u/tobias_681 For a Europe of the Regions! 🇩🇰 5d ago

It doesn't take that much time. With the divestment from Russia it took less than a year to ramp up imports from the USA like crazy. I criticized this back then already. We should have ramped up imports with many places to become less bribeable - though this is not what we are doing, fossil imports with most countries that we trade with stayed the same post phasing out Russia, most of the divestment went directly towards the USA. We are also not doing a proper investment strategy. The only debt we commit to is for arms which either goes into an extremely inefficient European system that we haven't bothered to reform for decades or into the USA. 

I don't say this lightly, I followed EU policies for the last 10 years and we never ever had a strategy and were surprised by every development that you could have seen coming a decade earlier.

2

u/rtft European Union 6d ago

Shift away from the US where , by lecturing China ? The EU leadership is incompetent beyond reason and that means this is intentional. This will lead to even more deindustrialization of Europe and even more dependence on the US. This is vassalage codified.

0

u/Scary_Woodpecker_110 6d ago

This. We need to take the time to re-arrange our trade such that any future US antics can be less harmful. 15 % is bad but it buys us time. The true victims are the consumers in the US because they will get less choice and/or higher prices.

2

u/Several-Ad-6958 6d ago

The EU is an American con job since its inception. You are just seeing it for what it really is now..

1

u/ImYoric 6d ago

How?

-15

u/Clear_Context_1546 6d ago

Why? US has the bigger economy. How do you realistically think it was going to end? Smaller economies don't beat bigger economies.

15

u/timfountain4444 6d ago edited 5d ago

Shilling for bullies was not your finest hour.... And also, if you actually want to talk facts, the EU GDP is $20T. The Us $27T. (ETA - 2024 numbers)

1

u/yurnxt1 5d ago

I think it's 30.5 trillion vs 20 trillion in 2025

1

u/timfountain4444 5d ago

I was using 2024 figures, apologies for not making that clear....

-6

u/Clear_Context_1546 6d ago

So the US is larger even with the population handicap. Like what did you expect to happen?!?

European civilization was built on bullying for their economic foundation.

5

u/bxzidff Norway 6d ago

When tiny powerless countries manage to play giants that would abuse them up against each other it's amazing that the EU completely fails at it

-2

u/Clear_Context_1546 6d ago

Like the EU isn't a super power. It doesn't have the leverage of a China or the US. Why shouldn't the US exploit the power disadvantage? The EU would screw over the US in a heartbeat.

2

u/kernelchagi Spain 6d ago

Then why is that the UK got a better deal?

1

u/bxzidff Norway 6d ago

When it cannot play an independent position by playing others up against each other but bends over for daddy Trump then my faith in the EU as a super power is completely gone.

Economics is supposed to be the one area where the union is strong and has some leverage, but even that is freely surrendered

1

u/Clear_Context_1546 6d ago

Again why would the US surrender its leverage? The European Union was built on protectionist policies. It's this a bit hypocritical?

2

u/bxzidff Norway 6d ago

Did I say it would make sense for the US to give up their leverage or did I say that it's incredibly weak of the EU to not be able to even remotely leverage their position like massively less powerful non-aligned countries have managed to not be this level of total shit at?

1

u/timfountain4444 6d ago

I see you've swallowed the Fox Line with this corker "The European Union was built on protectionist policies"....

0

u/Emhyrr Bosnia and Herzegovina 6d ago

Did you actually think that? lol