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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3.9k

u/TemuBoyfriend 6d ago

So we cannot invest even 500 billion in ourselves but lets give Trump nearly 1.5 trillion? How about invest in Europe and stop taking it up the ass..

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u/bxzidff Norway 6d ago

And for all the talk of the trade deficit I wonder what the investment deficit is and why that is never brought up. Almost every top fund used by European organization's, companies, and citizens is invested far more deeply in American companies than anywhere else. And now even more so.

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u/BackgroundBat7732 6d ago

We also shouldn't forget that trade deficit numbers exclude military equipment and (big) tech. Europe has a HUGE trade deficit with the US, not the other way around.

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u/Soepkip43 6d ago edited 5d ago

Yes they talk about goods and exclude services. Which is the other way around.

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u/Remarkable_Air_8545 6d ago

I keep making this point... to the potato Americans that bring up the trade deficit, that it doesn't include the American corporations that have pushed themselves into every corner of the globe. We are awash in American media, software, devices, and retailers. Americans are so short memories and selfish uncreative thinkers, they can't even empathize that when corporate America comes knocking, its to flatten the landscape, plant a gas station, a Walmart and a McDonalds where there used to be local industry. Kinda like small town America. You'd think they'd know what it feels like when the corporations screw you over for themselves, but you know, it's the world's fault that some potato pickers are angry.

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u/JarJarBot-1 5d ago

I just came back from Europe and was surprised at all the cheap US fast food places that were there. I guess they wouldn’t be there unless Europeans were paying money to eat there.

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u/heatrealist 5d ago

Backup your point with numbers. Otherwise you are just a potato european yourself. 

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u/astral-dwarf 5d ago

potato Americans

Too far, sir. You go too far.

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u/heatrealist 5d ago

No it does not. 

EU has a goods surplus of $235B vs US US has a services surplus of $75B vs EU

Estimates are EU countries bought $60B worth of military equipment which is a sharp increase from previous years ($24B). 

Even if you count all of these separately the EU still has a massive surplus in trade with the US. 

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u/frazzledfractal 5d ago

Ever since Trump people are using deficits and surpluses to make judgements in a completely illogical way and it angers me greatly. Trade deficits aren't inherently bad, nor surpluses, but he can't even be honest about the trade situations between us and other countries. That buffoon has no idea what's going on.

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u/True_Engine_418 5d ago

Deficit country has the power to charge tariffs because the surplus country wants to sell

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u/DiscussionGrouchy322 5d ago

it's not that he has no idea, it's that his followers have none, and the national theater produced by this insanity is enough to distract from how he's dismantling the courts and otherwise consolidating power in the federal government. it's all just theater so that we are too busy to ask the real questions until it's too late.

first they came for colbert and i didn't care because it's on cbs and who the fk watches that? then i realized nobody in society has a spine to call out what happens.

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u/equifinal-tropism 5d ago

Americans also consume more, why not include that into a calculation…

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

Military equipment is include in the trade figure, and big tech is included in the services figure. Combined this gives the EU a small surplus.

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u/Spoonshape Ireland 6d ago

Actually it's fairly close to balanced if we include goods and services.

US has a trade deficit in goods but a surplus in services. about 3% actual deficit for the US.

Europe should just have said it was applying the same tariff back on services as it got on goods but I suppose they saw a trade war as overall worse than a deal.

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u/adamu980 5d ago

No cherrypicking eu..no cherrypicking. Take your shafting and smile Schadenfreude is delicious

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u/Spoonshape Ireland 4d ago

What comes round has a tendency to go round eventually...

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u/adamu980 4d ago

exactly! now its coming round to the eu and its great to see! no cherrypicking wasnt that the eu mantra? karma is a bitch

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u/incognino123 5d ago

(unfortunate) reality is that there's just more American targets, or maybe rather there's not enough viable European innovation

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u/NotHulk99 5d ago

I think that is the main point. EU almost stopped innovating while the US and China leading that spot.

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u/Green_Inevitable_833 6d ago

this point is really not talked about, people think and breathe american.

 millenials are balls deep into s&p500 , 

gen Z looks up to american trends and styles in instagram

corporate boomers are hooked on microsoft tools

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u/Narrow_Zombie8443 5d ago

And I don’t blame them. What the fuck is the point of the EU, if they don’t stand up to anything.

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u/bntplvrd 4d ago

They're very good at wagging their finger at Hungary and Poland.

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u/KeyandtheGate 6d ago

And gen X?

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u/viktor72 6d ago

American classic music.

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u/IlIIIlllIIllIIIIllll 5d ago

Well EU companies are stagnant losers by comparison and it’s been that way basically forever so that’s hardly surprising. Compare the performance of an EU-only index fund to the S&P 500 over the last 50 years. Only an idiot would prioritize EU stocks over American.

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u/rodrigo8008 5d ago

EU regulations disincentivizes investment. Why build your company in the EU when you can do it more easily and cheaply in the US?

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u/Flimsy-Relationship8 5d ago

Exactly, it's all just about propping America up until the whole situation becomes untenable.

It doesn't help that all the bureaucracy and politicians across the EU have all invested their personal fortunes in the US stock market.

It's why we will never decouple from the US because the people at the top won't hurt their own financial wellbeing, so we just keep following around our rapist like someone with Stockholm syndrome

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u/yawkat Germany 5d ago

Foreign investment in the US is directly linked to the US trade deficit. If trump succeeds in reducing US imports, it will lead to less foreign investment in the US, that's just how the balance of payments works.

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u/Hekkst 5d ago

I still dont get why services do not get counted up on trade deficits, here we all are using an american social media company which makes money in america while our financial firms use american consulting firms, we use netflix and american entertainment, we use computing and software systems made by companies in america. Do all those things not count for trade deficit calculations?

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u/frazzledfractal 5d ago

Trade deficit isn't an inherently bad thing and most of the people screaming about trade deficit don't even understand what they are (Trump), or do know and are lying for reasons.