And he gave 30% tariffs, as a goodbye middle finger.
This is such a typical move from the EU. They always have big loud proposals to cut off that, to go full EV/go all organic/ go all open source etc. Then they ALWAYS chicken out. “What will the market think?” " Oh, that big corporation is saying they will lay off if we go that way." " Our sys admin costs will go up if we don’t subscribe to that corporate plan."
Next they start throwing a tantrum because people lose faith in the EU, start looking to hard liners etc.
Four years ago they said: look we are so powerful and implicated in your daily lives, we decided to get out of the Daylight saving time system and impose it on all member states, starting in six months…
They couldn’t even manage what was meant to be a weak demo of their strong willpower and political determination.
The EU is a political midget. It hurts me so much to admit it. But yeah, it’s dead. The whole thing.
It is enough to make one wonder if it was all just political theatre to distract the masses while the ultrawealthy and megacorps laughed all the way to their offshore accounts and tax havens.
Shame shame shame. A simple, efficient way to significantly increase the block’s revenues while having zero negative effect on EU citizens. They should play the Trump card and announce 100% retaliatory taxes on US digital services in case the negotiations don’t end their way.
Real talk: why does everyone care so much about trade with the US?
Can the EU, plus AUS / CAN / NZ / UK, plus non-China South-East Asia, really not replace the US and it’s great output of … predatory financial institutions?
The US holds 30.51% of the world’s economy and they produce highly sought after goods.
don’t forget tight control of the world’s currency. countries need dollars to trade.
Its only 9% of global trade though. https://www.wita.org/ustrade/us-trade-trends/
Significant, but the rest of the world can transition away from that without too much difficulty.
Within an infinitely long timeline, yes. Transitions take time and few are willing to take the immediate financial (and thus political hit) to do so.
One example is pharmaceutical companies, which represent a significant portion of goods produced in Europe. There is no market similar to the US where prices and consumption are both significantly high, so I would argue they would simply take a significant hit.
Economics is rarely done in long term thought because political cycles rely on economic performance. It’s stupid, but here we are…
What highly sought after goods?
I don’t doubt that their predatory financial institutions claim to own that much of the economy, but what do they actually produce?
As far as I can tell all they produce is too big companies that expand globally and send profits back home.
GPUs, Payment Processors and Weapons are the first ones that come to mind.
We should build alternatives.
Don’t forget oil and gas. Europe has pretty much been living of US gas the last 3 years. lazy link
Welp. I hope Canada’s PM is happy now after canceling Canada’s digital tax because he wanted to wait to see what the EU would do.
