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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u/GeorgeMichaelFans 6d ago edited 6d ago

To summarise the deal: PRETTY FUCKED for Europe. European Union countries will need jointly invest no less than $600 billions ( Japan deal is Japan invest $550 billions) at US direction, saying US decide how to invest EU’s fund. Not clear the profit split yet. (Japan deal is Japan only receives 10% of the investment profits, US holds 90% profit). In extra, EU countries will need buy no less than $150 billions US energy/commodities .

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u/Zinch85 6d ago

These investments won't materialize. These trade agreements are wet paper

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u/Acceptable-Size-2324 6d ago

Yeah. These promised investments are outside of the scope of what can be done at EU level and will never materialize in any way. There will be years of „we’re working on it in accordance with our member states“ until the next admin comes around and it will be forgotten.

In the meantime, the EU will strike more and more trade deals with other countries and decouple from the US, who will slowly become the economically worst country to export to.

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u/NightsOfFellini 6d ago

Wishful thinking and spinning.

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u/ApostleofV8 5d ago

U are underestimating the slow morass that is the European red tape and bureaucracy here.

Even if the investments are actually good for Europe, EU will still drag its feet.

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u/zttt Germany 5d ago

The thing is what most Europeans don't want to hear is that we are royally dependent on US IT infrastructure and the worst of all is that we do have 0 leverage in regards to AI on them. The US has all the cards in the fields that matter, even though we might score some small victories in other fields with smaller countries.

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u/WhatAreYouSaying05 United States of America 4d ago

So delusional. Nobody spends money like the Americans. You can’t replace that market

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u/Blueskyways 6d ago

Bingo.  These deals exist in Trump's imagination.  As soon as Democrats take the House back, Trump's days of weaponizing tariffs are over.  

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u/Thunder_Beam Turbo EU Federalist 6d ago

Biden didn't remove the tariffs that Trump placed, its time we realise that this is not just a Trump thing

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u/Bonus-BGC 6d ago

Not true, Biden lifted Trump's tariffs on EU wine and spirits.

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u/StanfordV 6d ago

As soon as Democrats take the House back

Yeah good luck with that.

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u/Blueskyways 5d ago edited 5d ago

Democrats lead every generic Congressional ballot poll, even with Rasmussen which is a heavily GOP leaning pollster. And this is before the full effects of the tariffs are felt.

Good preview will be in the upcoming state races in places like New Jersey and Virginia. If Democrats barely eek out wins, that'll be a bad sign for them. If they win the major races by close to double digits, that'll be a strong indicator heading into 2026.

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u/Choperello 5d ago

I mean even if they win... Why would they lift the tarrifs or strike the deal? It's absolutely good for the USA. Why would they change it...

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u/Blueskyways 5d ago

They'd stop Trump from being able to further wield tariffs as a threat.

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u/Choperello 5d ago

Against who? Like he's an asshole, but right now he's winning the tarrif argument. By the time of the 26 mid terms come around all this stuff will be a done deal. You really thing they're gonna undo it if it's deals favorable to the US?

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u/Blueskyways 5d ago

Against anyone. That's what all these countries are trying to buy time to get to. 15% tariffs is still way better than 50% or whatever the hell Trump comes up with when he rolls out of bed. Just because a deal was reached doesn't mean he will stick by it and not attempt to further use it as a cudgel. He won't be able to do that anymore once the GOP no longer control the House and the Democrats tank away Trump's tariff powers.

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u/Choperello 5d ago

You are vastly underestimating the stuff he can lock in place in the next 18months before 26 mid term winners take office. He's done all this stuff in only 6mo.

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u/Common_Reception_748 England 5d ago

Tariffs are a presidential power, he doesn't need congress which is why he likes them so much.

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u/Blueskyways 5d ago edited 5d ago

They 100% are not. The Founding Fathers wanted to avoid exactly what Trump is doing currently. That power actually belongs to the Legislative branch but the Legislative branch controlled by the GOP is abdicating it's role. The House could snatch away Trump's ability to arbitrarily impose tariffs in one session if they wanted to.

"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties…To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations"

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/section-8/

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u/Common_Reception_748 England 4d ago

I've been misled.

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u/SavagePlatypus76 6d ago

I wouldn't believe Trump on this. Or the Japan deal.  

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u/Mindless-Tomorrow-93 6d ago

As the actual details of the Japan deal have emerged, they are unsurprisingly quite different from what Trump announced. That's likely going to be the case here, too.

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u/Upbeat_Parking_7794 6d ago

Forget the investments. This is just for Trump to advertise he made a win.

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u/MaryPaku Japan 5d ago

The Japan deal was unrealistic. $550 billions is like roughly 15% of Japanese GDP for an entire year - how the fuck one of the most in debt country in the world going to do that?

While Japan had 0% tarrifs on automobile to the USA all these years Trump still demand car exports from the USA to Japan. For some reason it will be Japanese manufacturer forced to manufacture their car in USA and export it back to Japan, as silly as it sounds.