Those who followed the first-term trade negotiations will likely remember the challenges of dealing with the European Union and their entrenched dependency on retaining the Marshall Plan system; a one-way tariff process that enabled Europe to rebuild after World War II.
Unfortunately, as with all long-term financial subsidies, the beneficiary becomes dependent and retaining benefit is their only objective.
Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross spent the majority of his time focused on trying to negotiate with the EU to remove these ridiculous trade benefits that have long exhausted their usefulness. Enough is enough.
Term-two Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has the same regional assignment formerly held by Wilbur Ross, with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in full support.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has ASEAN nations as his primary regional focus, Lutnick’s primary region is the EU and President Trump is personally attentive to China and the USMCA. USTR Greer then goes to the primary with the closest deal under consideration and organizes the paper construct, the technical aspects. It’s an overall similar arrangement to term-1 only with a much bigger scope.
As would be expected from historic reference points in trying to break this insufferable one-way Marshall Plan system, the EU is once again operating in bad faith and will not give up their status. When President Trump says the entire reason for the EU to form was to ensure their retention of this Marshall Plan benefit, he’s not wrong. That’s the brutally honest background.
President Trump has announced today that a 50% tariff rate will be applied toward all EU imports until such a time as they come to the negotiation process willing to let go of their economic model dependent on the one-way benefit. There really is no other way to break the Gordian trade knot, other than to cut it – forcefully.
President Trump (via Truth Social) – “The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with. Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable. Our discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025. There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
President Trump has other points of leverage and pressure that can be applied, including a U.S. withdrawal from NATO or a drawdown of U.S military presence, forcing the EU to spend more for their own security. However, the increasingly firm nudges from President Trump in that direction have resulted in EU words, not EU actions.
I fully support a more confrontational trade position from the USA toward the primary beneficiaries of these old trade systems, China, the EU and Canada. China is the biggest problem, but the EU dependency system is the most entrenched. Canada will be confronted when the USMCA is reopened for negotiation and two bilateral Free Trade Agreements are the likely outcome.
In addition to the Marshall Plan aspect, the EU is not going to give up their trade advantage position for the same reason Canada will not. In order to get to a place of free and reciprocal trade with both Canada and the EU both economic models need to give up their underlying “climate change” policies.
The financial benefits the EU and Canada receive via trade subsidies and one-way rules is the money that fundamentally underpins their ability to chase rainbow energy policy. If Canada and the EU had to finance their own “Green Energy” initiatives without the money gained from the U.S. trade imbalance, they would not be able to afford it. This is the core of the problem. It’s not just an entrenched unwillingness; there’s also an ideologically entrenched inability.
We have accepted and discussed this dynamic for years on these pages, and what we are going to see with the trade confrontation both in Canada and the EU is very predictable. Eventually, if the EU and Canada refuse to move, there is going to be a necessary cleaving; essentially a trade embargo blocking them from USA access….
… That’s basically what a 50% tariff rate is!
My first reaction to the title of the article I laughed out loud!!!
This is great stuff, but please Mr. President watch your back. You are dealing with very low IQ greedy sociopaths, who know nothing but suck off the teat of America or get us all into wars..
The greedy sociopaths living in our basement working part time, getting free healthcare and free security are getting kicked out of the house by daddy Trump.
They need tough love to learn how to take care of themselves and how to be responsible adults.
…What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger…usually.
Not only did we not give the Europe our hard-earned money but more importantly we gave them the lives of our young men and women in both WWI and WWII. Now it is time for PAYBACK. I know my President will not back down.
Exactly this.
1 couldn’t help but smile after reading the report from Sundance, and my smile grew bigger when I saw pics of the 4 badgers.
Rock their world dear badgers, this is my main prayer focus for the rest of this day.
PKM29
I had the same reaction Peace Keeper. Peter Navarro in particular is one tough dude. Love that guy.
I got to know of Mr. Navarro during the painful 4 years of the illegitimate plant regime when I got attached to Bannon’s War room.
Peter Navarro is a true fighter and well qualified for his position in PDJT’s Cabinet.
Aren’t they wolverines?
. . . Honey badger don’t care neither. They both belong to the family Mustelidae.
Don’t mess with wolverines or honey badgers. They don’t play nice if you are a threat.
In a certain sense, yes indeed they are!
What they need is a purple finger vote on paper ballots counted by the Trump admin Brexit was the last real vote in the EU
And notice how the EU and UK powers-that-be basically ignored the Brexit vote and kept right on doing what they always did. Just like the US gubmint doubled down, come to think of it. Pretending that President Trump does *not* have a legitimate mandate from a clear majority of American citizens to make America great again, they obstruct, retaliate and conspire to remove our legitimate President and destroy our Constitutional Republic.
I belive both here and abroad their comeuppance is close at hand…
The Canadians are confronted with this:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-trumps-new-bill-threatens-major-tax-increases-for-canadian-companies/
Remember that Digital Services Tax they placed on American companies last year? (or two years ago, I don’t remember)
That G7 meeting is going to be lit!
Paywalled article. Could you give a synopsis? 😊
[First few paragraphs from the article:]
U.S. President Donald Trump‘s new tax bill is threatening to significantly hike rates for Canadian corporations and could cost investors holding U.S. securities up to $81-billion in additional taxes over seven years.
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Republican legislation, titled the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, with a narrow vote of 215-214. If it becomes law, it will override the Canadian-U.S. tax treaty that has been in place since 1942.
The 1,100-page document includes section 899, a tax proposal created as a retaliatory measure against what the U.S calls “discriminatory or unfair taxes” of foreign countries, including Canada’s digital services tax (DST), which was introduced in 2024.
The U.S legislation is still required to be passed by the Senate and receive presidential approval before it can become law. The White House expects the President to sign the final bill by July 4.
Canadian corporations that receive dividends from U.S. subsidiaries are currently subject to a 5-per-cent withholding rate under the tax treaty between the U.S. and Canada, much lower than the statutory rate of 30 per cent.
But under section 899, Canadian companies would see their tax rate increase by five percentage points each year until it reaches 20 percentage points above the statutory rate, or 50 per cent. It would remain in place until the “unfair tax” is removed.
Similarly, Canadian individuals who own U.S. securities directly are subject to a 15-per-cent withholding tax rate under the current treaty, reduced from the statutory rate of 30 per cent. Under section 899, the withholding rate could ultimately rise to 50 per cent.
Thanks. 😊
When do we get Alberta?
just laid by a year’s supply of British Navy Pusser’s rum. some things one simply can’t do without
This really is excellent news, and killing two birds with one stone! Lets see how they can afford their socialist, and mass immigration programs now!
I am getting the impression that these one way trade deals are like feeding bears with our hands. We have become too comfortable doing this and expect them to always behave.
These near apex predators will not back down. The EU have allowed much more than 1 million girls to be raped and allowed entire swath of their lands to be conquered by muslims in order to retain electoral control and domination on the only part of the population that is important: the natives. China has killed tens of million of their own for control.
I really do not think that they will comply. They will join forces to retain access to our wealth. Both the EU, specifically, London, and China will continue to undermine our country with pedophilia, electoral corruption, and targeted murders for control.
I am done with polite negotiations. Pull out of Ukraine completely, embargo EU and China products, and massively increase our armies and armaments for war if they want to go down this route.
Is there a history of them not complying?
From what Howard Lutnick has said, they are lining up to make deals.
Our President is the master of the deal. As POTUS likes to say, “We’ll see how it goes”.
In addition to rebuilding manufacturing here at home, I would love to see President Trump ditch NATO, send the U.N. and their hundreds of underlying scam projects packing; then drop their hangout in NYC to rubble like 9/11 and turn the ground into a monument honoring every fighter that helped bring them down.
We and the Ruskies saved Europe from the Hitler. We helped Europe rebuild after the destruction by the Hitler. We made sure the ridiculous little mustache of the Hitler would never be fashionable. We helped to expose the truth that the contemptible little weasel Goebbels had a club foot. And on and on. Europe owes us.
We saved Europe. The Soviets first aligned with the Nazis, and I wouldn’t call the Soviet bloc countries as ‘saved’ after that war.
Timing not coincidental.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trump-endorses-us-steel-nippon-deal
And the NLRB out of the way.
[ NRC Commissioners ]
I remember many years of only going to that old, almost like a relic, U.S. Steel warehouse and their cranes loading me up with good old U.S. rolled and milled steel shape, sheet, bar and tube. I think the building dated from the war. Now a company from a country my uncle fought to defeat in the Pacific owns it.
Is there any truly U.S. owned and made steel any more? I’ve read of micro mills and re-rolling plants but haven’t kept up. I’m thinking steel like Henry Ford’s Rouge steel plant, where raw materials load on one end and material ready to use comes out the other.
I don’t think so, but perhaps there are some small ops.
I’m pretty sure that most all the stuff we use like tee posts, u posts, fencing, rebar, and in automobiles and auto parts are manufactured over seas. Not sure where the specialty steels like tool steels are made anymore either.
I know this: Today’s imported steels are by far more flimsy than what we manufactured here in the states back when we had a robust steel industry.
Insert puke emoji here.
“…for it’s takeover of US Steel.”?
I worked in the mills in the Mon Valley. Will be keeping an eye on that news. Also waiting to see what happens on my stocks! That may take awhile.
I was over in the former Vermont Republic today.
For those that don’t know, we cross over the Connecticut River and it’s like driving through an iron curtain of sorts.
My talk radio program goes instantly dead, civilization is now in my rear view mirror as I head into Bernie’s Utopia.
All I can find now on the car radio is VPR OR, something else, “Yay” I’m thinking–only to learn at the commercial break that it’s the BBC- I didn’t think that was a Vuhmont accent.
So I wish you could have heard this conversation this morning –before they knew they were about to get kicked in the ass by the Orange Man.
They were blabbering on about “this game that Donald Trump plays with these tariffs, he just picks a country to attack for no reason at all.. this is the game he plays to attempt to manipulate, to attempt to get our nations to fall into line”..
This Brit -that talks like he’s got a plum lodged in his throat, went on in his hoity toity “We are so superior to you dirty people” voice about how they’ve got Trump’s game and it’s not going to work because we are so smart..
I cannot tell you how I wish to have seen their faces when this all hit today.
Seriously, if you need some comic relief, do turn on the BBC, it’s wildly entertaining to hear what they are telling their people about us.. it’s so far off that it’s laughable.
Agree and I live in BBCland.
Do you not get WRKO in Boston? Jeff Kuhner best MAGA talk show host in the business.
Some British podcasters I listen to on YouTube love, love Donald Trump. They are the ones the BBC fired for telling truths.
They talk about the decline of GB especially all the crime in London, they’ve been mugged in front of their own houses in daylight.
They also talk at length about the Muslim invasion.
Does Vermont still have all those blah brown and tan interstate signs for ‘advertising’?
My car radio gets “Canada Talks” which is also a hoot. The attitude is smug and the intellect is low.
Read up on the WW2 propagandist, Lord Haw – Haw (William Joyce).
Without our massive ongoing subsidies, the EU would not be able to afford its globalist delusions. They would be forced to work to keep themselves, and to actually take care of their people for a change. I hope Trump’s tariffs provoke the people to rise up – as the trends have been showing – and take their nations back.
The most disappointing as yet has been Britain, from which we get so many of our legal framework. They managed to break away from the EU officially, but they continue to be eaten alive by their own globalists, leftists, and “royalty”. They had better act. The hour is late. 🙏 🙏 🙏
The EU doesnt make any products. The EU is not a sovereign entity. (And according to some even illegal in how its stood up as its fundamental documents like “EU constitution” have been voted down in multiple independent referendums — before they abolished the legitimacy of referendums.. sad)
Therefore:
Independent sovereign counties make products.
So those should really be tarriff’ed independently
All those countries comprising the EU made their bed, and now they can lie in it. Imposing the 50% tariff will get the individual countries’ attention. Make Brussels explain why their paid 5-week holidays are going away. Except for possibly Italy and Hungary, the rest of the countries apparently like being serfs. I can hope.
After 80 years of Post-War coddling… time for
‘Europe’ to grow up and stand on its own 2 feet.
I’m fine with whatever our President thinks is the right way to handle the Europeans:
Tariffs
NATO withdrawal
Or something else.
So they get mad and call us names… they’ve been doing that anyway for 8 decades (if not longer).
Besides, we need to
de-emphasize and de-couple from too close a relationship with the Europeans… because in a few relatively short years…
The Europeans
Won’t
Be
European
Any
More.
Can we just say what Kristi Noem said to the EU and Canada?
I’m all for cutting them off. We need to take care of our own first.
The places I want to see tariffs, the EU, Canada and China. This is at least one of them. let’s see come 6/2.
Divide and conquer. If the E.U. decides to go to (trade) war against the USA (raising punitive tariff’s of their own), single out the leading countries for escalation. 100% tariffs to France, 150% on German goods, maybe 75% on the UK, or 200% against Belgium (EU headquarters), or maybe only a 1% tariff for 1 year on Hungry, Poland, or other EU countries which verify that their products are made 85% within their own territories (i.e. not Chinese or German components). Crack the E.U. to pieces.
Maybe attack Green policies specifically. The biggest Arab immigrant importers, the biggest “green” technology states, get a special tariff on those goods.
War is hell, but the European’s have felt the full brunt of war since Daddy Yankee started banking them in 1945, after bailing them out of a hellish future. Time to remind them of what reality looks like when they tell Daddy Yankee to “go to hell or give us our allowance money”.
I will offer another perspective. I work for a European-owned company in the eastern United States. They are lobbying Congress on the tariffs. Democrats visiting the sites, etc. The free trade zones the company set up will not be allowed under the executive order. The point they’re making to the politicians is that this will force them to make products in Europe, because it’s cheaper due to the tariffs and logistics to move parts from one plant to another. Part A made in US is shipped to EU to make part B which is shipped back to US to go into final assemblies. Tariffs going both ways increases costs too much, so they’d rather just make in EU.
I’ll be curious to see how this 50% tariff affects their decisions. I am hoping they’ll get after the EU, but they are all leftist at heart, so will probably stick to the Trump derangement and run to the Democrats for protection.
Employees are a bit nervous. Sales are down. Hiring freeze and other cost controls are being implemented. I will probably be required to let people go. European companies will make adjustments and it may not be to the benefit of US-based employees.
While I understand this is a necessary correction, please keep your fellow citizens who will be negatively impacted in mind. It pains me to let these people go. They are good workers. Hoping for the best, but right now, it looks like we’ll be forced to cut 10% of our workforce.
Finally,…its been a loooong time coming, and I have been predicting/anticipating this for a looong time.
Its not that the EU leadership are being stubborn, and while dropping their GND foolishness may help their current sutuation, their dependance on the U.S. thru trade restrictions, combined with intentional underfunding of their military, knowing the U.S. would make up any shortfell, is how they got the OPM that ensbled them to have full pensions at 60, ‘free’ healthcare, and such well maintained infrastructure
They are stuck; even if they drop GND, they have to buy energy from either Russia or the U.S. which means cost volatilty, and products produced would still be tariffed in order to be sold in our markets.
Any austerity measures are going to be met with BITTER resistance by the citisenry, that view these vote buyinng ‘social safety net’ programs as something they are entitled to.
And, they probably would not be able to weather this storm , even without the current politics war between the Nationalist/Populists who want to MEGA, and the Globalist elites who want the people to eat ze bugs….
The EU is going down, and good riddancce.
The Satanic, anti-christian, anti-human Malthusian Marxis illegitimate EU is the problem.
The US can and will form fair trade agreements with the ‘nations’ of Europe.
The EU is little different than the USSR.
Been calling the final bottom of the stock market near Fathers Day for a long time now… I see two bottoms… June 12-13, then June 24-25… I believe these tariffs help the markets to get to my long predicted Father’s Day final low… then markets up into macro market peak into February 2028! And the low interest rates should be February 2028 as well….
Great Depression hits after Labor Day 2030 macro market peak… Great Depression 2031-2034 Labor Day final end to Great Depression window.
1st John 4:10
skin care and beauty products are in the mix. Karen is going to be angry. Tran is going to suffer, more.
A lot of companies are multi-nationals with branch headquarters in the U.S. and a lot of those products used to be manufactured in the U.S. (indeed, back in the day the French women were always asking my aunt to bring back such items from the states; my aunt worked in Paris). Karen will find a way.
Put very bluntly with salty language…the equivalent of “I’m mad as hell and not going to take it any more…”
The EU mind must be totally blown by now. No more war cash, no more hustle on trade.
Sharing the link on A Skeptic Reports
https://askeptic.substack.com/
My ancestors left Europe for a better place.
Trump is 100% correct in his trade & tariff polices. The problem is that U.S. consumers will feel pain in the short term and that may well result in big losses for Republicans in the 2026 mid term election and in the 2028 presidential election. Given a longer period to work like 5-8 years, Trump could well succeed in his trade objectives. But getting kicked out of power is going to allow Democrats to just reverse everything accomplished and very quickly.
Uniparty republicans colluding with Uniparty democrats has never been a problem.
The uniparty announces collusion by omission, knowingly or unknowingly.
The uniparty is EZR to exploit then deny.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110969899593295427