EU should back Trump in a trade war with China
THREE months ago President Trump exempted the EU from his threatened global trade war over cheap steel and aluminium flooding his country because they are Nato allies. But insufficient progress was made by the protectionist Europeans – and that triggered him to raise tariffs last week to 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium imported into the US.
Because Brussels negotiates on our behalf we are included in the threatened trade war. If we weren’t in the EU but had our own direct trade deal with the US we could have settled this weeks ago.
US cars sold to the EU have a 10 per cent tariff placed on them. EU cars sold to the US face a 2½ per cent levy. It’s no surprise that Germany has gone quiet over any threatened retaliations. The EU sells more to the US than the Americans do to us, which means we will lose any trade war. Trump knows that.
Two years ago voters supported Trump because he promised to put America First and bring back jobs to the US. By confronting cheap steel being dumped on his country – and the EU is one of the leading culprits in this – he is reopening metal smelters in the US and giving back jobs to the bluecollar people who voted for him. A politician who does what he says he’s going to do.
IN CONTRAST, two years ago we voted for Brexit and, faced with endless negotiations and transition periods, are we ever going to truly leave the EU? More importantly, where are the benefits we were promised for voting Leave? Where is the money we are going to save?
The common thread in this is not the tough talking of President Trump but the intransigence of the EU.
It’s little wonder the Italians are on a crash course with Brussels. The EU promises to reform itself in the face of voter criticism but it does nothing. It’s no surprise that Trump has lost patience with Brussels and their German puppet masters.
Wealthy Germany shelters under the military defence umbrella of Nato but refuses to pay its full contribution, leaving it to the UK and US to foot