EU’s trade war nightmare gets real as Trump triumphs

31 comments

1. Winnable. The US imports crucial public goods like medicine and food from us. As harvests had a bad year the US even found it was cheaper to buy wheat from France. Germany delivered emergency exports of baby formula as the US had shortages.

   Now when Trump will start his deportations and impose tariffs, we will be their only friends left.

2. As a EU citizen, I wholeheartedly hope this forces EU to grow up. Time for being a leech on US economy is over. Let’s focus on building a robust internal market. “Build cheap here and export to US” strategy wasn’t great to start with. Let’s focus on becoming a real deal again.

3. TLDR

   Donald Trump’s re-election has reignited fears within the EU about potential trade conflicts, particularly as he hints at imposing steep tariffs on goods from China and specific European industries, such as German car exports. While EU leaders publicly advocate for cooperation, they are also preparing defensive measures in the event of a trade war. Germany, with its significant trade surplus, could face considerable economic losses. Although the EU is pursuing diplomatic negotiations, it is ready to respond with the trade defence mechanisms established during Trump’s previous term. The bloc also sees an opportunity to collaborate with Trump to limit Chinese imports.

4. Time for the EU and Europe in general to sever our dependence on the US, we can and should be better. If there was a time to do it it should have been long before this but hopefully this is finally the spark to finally see some meaningful change.

5. I am more afraid of an actual war in Europe if Trump declares that the US doesn’t protect NATO countries anymore. Luckily Ukraine has drained Russian resources so badly that it might not start another war for the next 4 years.

6. Europe is torn by the direct and indirect influence of global powers. Every world power in the world has an interest in keeping Europe down or weaker as it could be.. be it some narcistic billionaire US president that threatens Europe with Tariffs on another level or to “abandon it to be torn apart by the wolves in the east”.. or by a wannabe Russian Tzar with expansionist ambitions and natural resources threaten Europe with aggressive gestures of war and suppression that strike many of us with fear and anxiety and lets not forget China with its manipulative interacting that really only is relevant because it copied European/Western Tech

   ..and you know what? I get it.

   Europe is the shaper of the modern world how it is today and how it works.Most historic and politic world breaking events happend on European soil wich always was packed with brilliant minds who invented ground (and sky) breaking sh*t on a daily bases for centuries. Europe has seen it all.. hell it mostly started it all in the first place.. from Tribal Chieftains to Monarchie to fashist and communist leaders and their very end..seperated by political borders and languages in all shapes and form imaginable over centuries..fought every kind of war on its territory over epochs from Clubs and slings to Longbows and Swords until industrial warfare with millions of dead in the world war.. TWICE right after starting industry in the first place and every country and culture played a part in it.. shaping it

   This continent isnt called the “old world” for sh*ts and giggles. Every western or western leaning country in the world outside of Europe is an offspring of Europe itself to some degree.. European settlers in the colonies the British crown claimed few hundred years ago decided to gtfo because they got treated like sh*t and taxed the hell out of .. and they fought a war over it few hundred years ago and won.. they won by rules Europeans invented .. its their right not to give a fck.. still they pretty much give a very big fck whats going on over in Europe and fought on European soil and had a big part reshaping it and how it works today.

   The differences the Europeans have between themselves be it from historic events or national or economical interests sometimes existing for centuries are real and need solving.. Europe works on those problems but it is a real slow progress but a progress .. wich gets even more tedious when global powers intervene in some way or another.. distractions, interuptions, and fearmongering from outside Europe are poison for the progress of naturally let Europeans discover themselves and indentify as one after they discovered how the world looks and works in the first place.

   Europe is scared of the world it created unsure what to do.. and thats great news for the world powers because a continent full with countries that are either historic/militarily/scientific/cultural/economic and industrial powerhouses all together or at least one of those things like Europe combined as one people and act as such really makes you sh*t your pants from an outside view..

7. How bad? It’s time EU countries cut off their big connections to the US, we have been overly connected too long. We need our own foreign and industrial policies in our own independent countries. The over dependence on EU dictates is screwing us.

8. If Trump imposes on China 60% tariff, but on EU 10-20%, isn’t this mean EU will get more competitive relative to Chinese goods?

9. Nightmare? I say let them start one, the hurt will go both ways. There’s a sizeable number of American companies paying a mere few percentages of taxes here (I’m looking especially at the tech giants), maybe it’s time to put an end to that full-stop. I once read Silicon Valley being described as the new Rome because all the riches slowly make their way there.

   3M also polluted one fourth to one third of Flanders with PFAS and faced pretty much no repercussions.

10. This is not a nightmare for us Europeans, it is a wake-up call! Within the EU, we have more in common with each other than with the US right now and perhaps ever again, and we should improve ourselves to the level that we don’t need to lean on them for anything. It is great to have friends and allies and trade partners, but we should always be wary that they can (partially) turn on us. Trump has called the EU an “enemy” in his supposed “trade war”, and we should take up that challenge. The US are still our allies, but in my view they aren’t friends anymore, at least not as a nation. There are just too many morons there that don’t value our friendship, and would throw it away if they think it will lower their inflation a little for a year or two.

    I say, let this happen. The general US public apparently doesn’t want us anymore. Let’s make them feel it and turn it to our advantage. Let us Europeans build a more solid foundation, improve our internal economy, strengthen our human rights, fight internal corruption, construct better and faster infrastructure, build an EU army and navy and air force, and invite the last European stragglers to join the EU. Let us look for trade partners elsewhere, whether it be among other developed nations like Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Australia, or upcoming nations like Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, Nigeria, and Indonesia. Let us go out in the world even more and try to help improve it, not by military domination like the US, or by financial strangulation like China, but as champions of democracy and human rights and strong interdependent economies. Let us build up ESA and go to the moon and the asteroids. Let us finally throw off the idea the US always imposed on us since WW2, that we should aspire to be like them and should be thankful to them for freeing us from the Nazi’s, which especially in the last decades has just made us materialist and stupid and violent. Let’s realize our potential, both for our own sakes and to be an inspiration to them and the world in general.

    And let’s be ready to face a fascist US if necessary. If Trump is going to follow the Project 2025 policy wishlist as a roadmap, [as many informed people expect he will](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQcL0t73O5Y), we might lose the US as an ally altogether. Project 2025 is setting the US up to fail HARD, and it will mean that we will lose their protection within a few years, and will probably want them to return all troops and planes and nukes from EU soil; if they don’t do so themselves as Trump already announced he wants to. Let’s be ready for this; they might even turn on us. Let’s not become a tasty option for expansion for Russia or China or anyone, and instead become a powerhouse that can deal with its own problems and can grow into the sky. We got this.

11. I see a bunch of my fellow Europeans claiming that a trade war with America is “winnable” for us. Pure hopium, and a dangerous delusion.

    If we choose to let ourselves get into a trade war with America, we will definitely lose. We don’t have the internal market and our demographics (with maybe France as an exception) means that we will never have the internal markets to absorb our own production.

    Sure, we can make problems for the U.S., and we can cause discomfort, but that is about the extent of what we can do. If the U.S. decides to lock us out of its markets, we won’t feel “discomfort”; we will go into a full fledged collapse.

    And let’s just take China off the table, because anyone who would willingly trade America as a partner for China is so laughably deluded that they can be safely ignored.

    And then there is Europe’s dependence on the U.S. to make sure its stuff actually gets anywhere in the world. I think we could cover this militarily, but I am also sure we are neither politically nor economically ready for the sacrifices this would mean.

    The good news is that I think most of the panic comes from how fully we swallowed the messaging from the Democratic Party in the U.S. The truth is that things are not nearly that dark.

12. we need to treat the US as China economically and get our own manufacturing locally , we have the workers to do it , we need to increase military spend to at least 30% if ukraine fails we are next.

13. Europe resemble XIX century China, but we haven’t realise it jet.

    Welth still is here, but economicly we are colony already. There are no high technology european gigants, production of simple goods is outsourced, there is no military we can use as a political leverage.

    This is probably last call to wake up.

14. When trump starts with his tarrifs the EU should threaten to legalize digital piracy.

15. Europe can’t rely on America at all. At all. Trump is in Putin’s pocket. This isn’t even a doubt.

    Euros needs to take care of itself. Big military budget, ramp up production, form a European Army. Kick out Hungary and any other shitty pro-Russia countries.

    No more softly softly – we’re in an existential crisis.

16. OK, I wish there will be no trade war because everyone would lose. But I don’t want to bury my head in the sand.

    I think the situation is a bit different than 8 years ago. Europe is lagging behind in some of the key technologies of the future. So this time you could argue that Europe would actually benefit from protecting and building up certain industries on its own. I also think that some regulations have not been developed or enforced in order not to provoke a trade war. But if its coming now anyway, I hope we use it to regulate the monopoly of some tech companies (e.g. amazon) regulate social media more (e.g. act more swiftly against AI content, lies and defamation), make tech companies pay taxes in Europe on the profits they make here, build up a European tech industry (e.g. European cloud providers) or catch up on the EV market.

    It is often talked about that the EU exports more goods to the US, but it is often neglected that the EU buys far more services from the US.

17. A trade deal with Mercosur and then South America in general only depends on the EU.

    Is the EU prepare to get off the high horse and treat them as equals though? Reddit I know isn’t.

18. The whole “we should stop depending on the US” rhetoric is moot as long as people from the EU continue to invest in US businesses and profit from their stock market fluctuations.

    All countries from around the world are financially dependent on each other because of foreign investments that won’t simply go away even if new laws are enacted to prohibit them. Whoever wants to bet on the US stock market will continue to do so via shell companies and the cycle of shitty dependence will continue.

19. I say we write a new directive. It worked amazingly well with the previous ones.

20. Macron’s words still in my head about losing US dependency and not counting on them for our problems, it’s more than time to create a European Army, reestablish connections to the UK to join the EU again(if they what it).

21. Wilders and Orban are very happy about this.

22. Many European countries are dependent on exports and can thus be easily cornered when access is cut off. Internal consumption has to rise in the EU to US levels. EU countries should not have to depend on market access in China and or the US. In the future more intra continent trade will be the norm. The Houthis and wars are constraining world trade.

23. If we are talking about trade in goods and services, a trade war would mean that both parties would suffer significant losses. Trade makes up approximately 14% of both areas’ total trade and 10 million people work in companies whose owners are on the opposite side of the Atlantic

24. Czechia and Slovenia safe. He likes our women.

25. We need to fix the veto issue, we can’t do anything as long as a single country can block everything.

26. Problem is if the EU goes independent with defense, Economy and so on it will cost a lot of money before we will see any results which in turn will make certain loud political parties stronger during that time

27. Attract more skilled immigrants, bring startups founded by europeans back to europe from silicon valley. Alongside tariffs, perhaps h1b restriction is also coming in US. This is a good opportunity for europe to hire SKILLED workers

28. Just weaponize ASLM.

    The whole tech industry will be crawling.

29. For what im hearing in european news the aproach on climate has changed from minimizing the damage we do to the enviroment to minimizing the damage the enviroment will do to us. 15 eolic parks have been canceled so i suppose the 2030 project on emisions has been discarded and we are preparing for a massive war and at the same time becoming selfsufficient…

30. I still cant believe americans are so monumentally stupid and voted for Trump a second time.

31. Oh no you actually have to be countries and care for your own defense and economy now, the horror

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