The European Union will not decouple from the Chinese economy as a condition for reaching a trade deal with Donald Trump’s administration, the European Commission said on Tuesday amid reports that the White House has asked countries to do exactly that.
https://lemm.ee/post/62079326
The US wants to contain China. They currently don’t look like it but they are the country of the playbook. They haven’t started the tariff madness without a plan to decouple Europe from China. Otherwise the tariffs would be suicide.
Well if there is a plan I’m still waiting to see it. It’s good they’re subtle about it though, because playing mind games with your allies isn’t a good way of getting them to like you again.
This is the show for the people. The tariffs were discussed in Davos in January and were mentioned in the Washington Post in 2023. Project 2025 exists for some years. The leaders know, the journalists know, and yet, everybody was surprised when it happened.
They pretend to be surprised and likewise, they would have objected much much stronger before, if the allies wouldn’t accept what is happening.
Yes, the world isn’t that controllable. If it were a bunch of dictators meeting up in secret, maybe, but a group of democratic elected individuals, socialites and business people (all with their own agenda!) could never get something that elaborate done without some journalist somewhere picking up on it. There are many big media corpos, but there is also enough smaller ones who haven’t said anything like ‘european governments knew about the plan with the 25% tariffs that later were lowered to the planned 10%, because they secretly agreed to decouple from china without the public finding out’.
Easy to say afterwards, but I think they were in denial. People were talking about Trump possibly bullying Canada and Greenland (Or Denmark really) because of the resources and security argument, but those were for decades close allies. Governments could imagine Trump pushing back on German car imports, or put pressure on the Netherlands because of ASML but they expected tarrifs to be bilateral and specific to certain industries; not wide across the board and also not as inconsistent as they were. Trump seems to change his mind overnight and to do that to allies makes it even worse to them. They wouldn’t be offended if these were actions against east-asian or south-america countries, they would just dislike it. But to cause so much economic problems purely for the economic benefit of the US is seen as egoistic and even though they could’ve predicted trump to not care about Europe they were naive because of the decade long partnership between US en EU.
Exactly this, they won’t.
Ukrain also objected to the mineral deal.
The US wants to contain China. They currently don’t look like it but they are the country of the playbook. They haven’t started the tariff madness without a plan to decouple Europe from China. Otherwise the tariffs would be suicide.
Well if there is a plan I’m still waiting to see it. It’s good they’re subtle about it though, because playing mind games with your allies isn’t a good way of getting them to like you again.
This is the show for the people. The tariffs were discussed in Davos in January and were mentioned in the Washington Post in 2023. Project 2025 exists for some years. The leaders know, the journalists know, and yet, everybody was surprised when it happened.
They pretend to be surprised and likewise, they would have objected much much stronger before, if the allies wouldn’t accept what is happening.
Maybe go outside, see some sunlight or something.
You mean this is too much conspiracy?
Yes, the world isn’t that controllable. If it were a bunch of dictators meeting up in secret, maybe, but a group of democratic elected individuals, socialites and business people (all with their own agenda!) could never get something that elaborate done without some journalist somewhere picking up on it. There are many big media corpos, but there is also enough smaller ones who haven’t said anything like ‘european governments knew about the plan with the 25% tariffs that later were lowered to the planned 10%, because they secretly agreed to decouple from china without the public finding out’.
I also don’t believe that the specific ups and downs were planned, especially not the exact timing.
But the introduction of the tariffs was known.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/22/economy/jamie-dimon-tariffs-get-over-it/index.html
How do you interpret it? Did the European governments know but they just expected some trade negotiations?
Easy to say afterwards, but I think they were in denial. People were talking about Trump possibly bullying Canada and Greenland (Or Denmark really) because of the resources and security argument, but those were for decades close allies. Governments could imagine Trump pushing back on German car imports, or put pressure on the Netherlands because of ASML but they expected tarrifs to be bilateral and specific to certain industries; not wide across the board and also not as inconsistent as they were. Trump seems to change his mind overnight and to do that to allies makes it even worse to them. They wouldn’t be offended if these were actions against east-asian or south-america countries, they would just dislike it. But to cause so much economic problems purely for the economic benefit of the US is seen as egoistic and even though they could’ve predicted trump to not care about Europe they were naive because of the decade long partnership between US en EU.