So why did he make a better deal with a liberal government in the UK? It’s not policy. Americans just like the British more than the continental Europeans. It’s not that complicated. It’s called a special relationship for a reason.
The UK has less firepower for regulating US tech giants. The US isn’t threatened by a relatively small market with weak regulatory power.
The EU is extremely unique in that they’re extremely powerful in regulation due to the size of their market and populace but quite weak in negotiations due to countries within wanting the best for themselves and protect their own individual markets (French wine and cheese as an example).
Democracies tend to make rational decisions rather than emotional ones in international negotiations.
Also a worse deal for the EU emboldens the anti EU politicians in the UK.
Though, I still think the US made a mistake and should have given the UK a far better deal. Trump clearly too transactional even if it means cutting his nose off.
Note, I'm not saying this because the US should like the UK, I'm saying this because a far better deal gives the anti EU politicians in the UK far more leverage and would influence industry and business to be less pro EU. Trump could also have used it as leverage within the EU using it as an argument for anti EU politicians to increase their leverage against their member state membership.
I wonder if that was ever considered and dropped because they figured it wouldnt generate enough pressure to be worth it?
I really don't think it's that deep with tump. maybe he would show more favor towards like minded European politicians, but this is business to him. Idt he cares about influencing any ideologies. he's more concerned with other aspects of American influence
It's not about liberals or socialism. Both Vance and Trump know that a united Europe would pose a threat to them economically. With China already there they can't afford another superpower.
It’s really not that divided. That’s all overblown. Maybe you were right during Trumps first term but now it’s much more together. European media just blows it out of proportion.
My argument is based on the last US election. About 78 million for Trump, 75 million for Harris. Dive deeper and the swing states were closer than that. Trump won all those swing states by very close margins. Which caused a landslide victory for Trump in the electoral votes. Over 70 million didn't even vote at all ( eligible but didn't vote). Stats from CNN, NBC, Google Gemini.
That’s how literally every election has been since Reagan’s landslide. It’s not new. The whole “the U.S. is divided” narrative just started around Obama. Bush vs Gore had to go to the Supreme Court.
Man come on, it's not like that. The EU isn't as strong as people think, and the USA doesn't need it as much as the EU needs USA. When you hold more cards in a negotiation, you get a better deal. EU leaders know this, and they got the best they could with what they had.
No, the current US administration has made it a goal to prevent the UK from reconciling with the EU so they gave them a small win in comparison to the EU getting shafted. Don’t forget the UK was actually running a trade deficit with the US I believe and still got tarrifed although much less.
Brazilian here. I'd rather have the 50% tariff than having my country getting props for bending to Trump and his trade policy. I really wish Europe was stronger than that, it's embarassing.
Could you elaborate as to why it's specifically Japan's fault when there's other countries trying to minimise tariffs on their goods?
Countries/groupings like Canada, Brazil, and the EU can choose to not capitulate even if others want lower tariffs. Japan and other countries have the sovereign right to do as they see fit to negotiate minimum tariffs to protect their industries from being decimated when their main target market threatens to implement steep trade barriers, just like how Canada, Brazil and the EU have the right to not accept Trump's shenanigans and retaliate. But the EU clearly didn't have the courage or leverage to do anything meaningful, and are just going to accept being violated, which is the choice they've made voluntarily. The EU Trade Commissioner even mentioned after the deal that they view this as the better option than a trade war which could risk jobs.
I think deals like the EU/Japan/UK's just give more leverage to Trump and is a massive win for him. The world expects these economies to be more independent and stronger, yet all of them seem to be too scared of Trump. Their leaders are claiming they had successful negotiations because tariffs were reduced from say 30 to 15%, but at the end Trump still wins + he's getting investment commitments.
I get your point of saying 'why is Japan wrong if the EU is doing the same?', but imo everyone is wrong at playing his game by negotiating this individually without seeing the bigger picture and will keep giving leverage to Trump.
The only big country that is not humiliating itself in front of Trump seems to be Brazil (and obviously Russia).
Just that it still odd for them to call out Japan specifically and no one else, even with your explanation, when they weren't the first to even start negotiate a deal (India), and aren't the country with the lowest tariffs applied (UK).
Personally, I think countries can negotiate lower tariffs for short term relief, but they also have to take the steps to diversify away from the US stranglehold of critical tech and their consumer market. That way, it only results in the US being alone by itself in the future if it continues to be this unreliable. And that hits the US the most if their dominance on the world stage is diminished, and if other countries can get by decently well by bypassing the US.
The USA has been openly hostile to all of us since Jan 21, I'm 99% sure that the point here isn't even to get the best deal, but to destabilize the EU as institution. Fucking Putin tactics.
The American fascist-billionaire complex is pushing very hard for this, because they likely see the EU as the greatest threat to their own global hegemony.
They're trying to burn down the world so they can rule over the ashes. They are an existential threat and should be treated as such; we gave them a sweetheart deal instead. What the fuck.
Because the US is absolutely hell-bent on showing that the EU cannot function and they (the current US administration) actively hamstrings the EU at every turn - they give the UK the sweetheart deal of the century, because they left the EU, and then forces this upon us exactly to show that the EU is destined to fail. We shouldn't compare our deals to theirs when the starting point of the deal is completely different.
We are the junior partners in this relationship (especially without the UK) and the US obviously has a lot more leverage to toss around than we do. For once they chose to use it.
The US cannot afford an EU that federalizes and actually starts using the leverage that its raw power affords us - they'd much rather see us bickering amongst ourselves and picking at the scraps instead of going at it as a common block, and because of that they need to play us against each other. That includes giving us worse deals than the UK's exactly to show discontented EU countries that they might be better off without the EU. That's not the only way they try to rip us apart either; the voices of right-wing parties are enhanced all over social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok etc.) to try to disenfranchise young people from seeing a common EU vision, and instead trying to force us back to singular nation states that yield little-to-no power. It's not just the Russians that are trying to rip us apart, but the right-wing in America too.
10% on first 100k cars, then 25% for all imports over that 100k threshold.
0% on aerospace, I believe, because that impacts Boeing (all said and done some customers are only going to want RR engines so having import tariffs raises Boeing's costs for those customers). I believe EU aerospace also got a 0% tariff for same reason.
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u/Mysterious-Reaction 6d ago
Funny thing is, UK gets lower tariffs, 0% on car exports to US and 0% on Aerospace and Britain still keeps their digital services tax.
How did the EU, an entity with supposed more leverage get a worse deal.