Customs duties: “This time, it’s not Trump who backed down, but the Europeans”
Trump has taken advantage of Europeans' dependence on the United States for security reasons to extract trade concessions. The 15% tariffs imposed on most European products imported into the United States are a further blow to the competitiveness of the 27, warns this Bloomberg columnist.
Donald Trump's global trade war has just borne fruit with the latest agreement and the 15% tax imposed on European Union (EU) products.
This reduction, compared to the initial 30% threat , was granted in exchange for a plethora of European investment in the United States and a drastic increase in energy purchases and military equipment from EU countries. Last week, Japan reached a similar agreement , which allowed it to avoid some of Trump's extravagant demands.
“ This is the best deal we could have achieved ,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
And she's far from alone in thinking this. The United States is the EU's largest trading partner and one of its most important technology suppliers. Europeans simply cannot risk a reciprocal cycle of tariffs, as Bernard Arnault, the head of LVMH, explained last week.
An agreement reached before the fateful date of August 1 , at a rate that large companies consider “acceptable”, sends a positive signal to the markets, assures [the British bank] Bar
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