From the side of us there could be some truth in the fact that money earned by import duties could spent without parliamentary oversight (although parliament isn’t stopping anyway, so why?), but the EU is a body of cooperating nation states, no way they would get to spend the money they get from import duties ‘however they like’. Aside from that, new tariffs on American stuff have been postponed from now so there isn’t any money coming in. But even if that would be the case, there is so much trade happening with other countries that I can’t imagine the EU would really be benefiting a lot from getting some extra cash from the trade with US. In any case, it definitely wouldn’t be enough to make the entire budget independent from the parliament especially since a large part of that budget comes from member states (and in turn from their taxpayers).
That surprises me to be honest, i think in theory you might be right on them being able to double their budget if the trade would continue as usual with 25% tariff. But still I can’t imagine there being a secret plot trying to get this done. What would they even use the money for? I think there are corrupt individuals looking to fill their own pockets, but I don’t see how the ruling parties in the EU would benefit from increasing the budget with some backroom agreement.
I was curious as to who gets the money from import duties and it is indeed (mainly) the EU itself. Also surprised to learn already almost one sixth of the budget comes from tariffs. So wanting to up the tariffs would definitely be a short term gain. Do you have a (conspiracy) theorie as to what the eu would do with their extended / independent budget?
I can’t imagine that the EU would actually try to finance itself with tariffs. Free trade is what allows for specialization and thus greater prosperity for everybody.
The usage would be that the EU becomes independend from its states. Now the states have some leverage to at least deny further funding if the EU reduces their power.
From the side of us there could be some truth in the fact that money earned by import duties could spent without parliamentary oversight (although parliament isn’t stopping anyway, so why?), but the EU is a body of cooperating nation states, no way they would get to spend the money they get from import duties ‘however they like’. Aside from that, new tariffs on American stuff have been postponed from now so there isn’t any money coming in. But even if that would be the case, there is so much trade happening with other countries that I can’t imagine the EU would really be benefiting a lot from getting some extra cash from the trade with US. In any case, it definitely wouldn’t be enough to make the entire budget independent from the parliament especially since a large part of that budget comes from member states (and in turn from their taxpayers).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_the_European_Union
The budget is 170 billion euros.
https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/eu-trade-relationships-country-and-region/countries-and-regions/united-states_en
Goods and services are together roughly 800 billion euros.
So at 25% tariffs, it could be possible in theory but trade would collapse.
That surprises me to be honest, i think in theory you might be right on them being able to double their budget if the trade would continue as usual with 25% tariff. But still I can’t imagine there being a secret plot trying to get this done. What would they even use the money for? I think there are corrupt individuals looking to fill their own pockets, but I don’t see how the ruling parties in the EU would benefit from increasing the budget with some backroom agreement.
I was curious as to who gets the money from import duties and it is indeed (mainly) the EU itself. Also surprised to learn already almost one sixth of the budget comes from tariffs. So wanting to up the tariffs would definitely be a short term gain. Do you have a (conspiracy) theorie as to what the eu would do with their extended / independent budget?
I can’t imagine that the EU would actually try to finance itself with tariffs. Free trade is what allows for specialization and thus greater prosperity for everybody.
The usage would be that the EU becomes independend from its states. Now the states have some leverage to at least deny further funding if the EU reduces their power.