The big headline this week is the U.S.–EU trade deal. The straight story is this: The deal puts a 15 percent tariff on about 70 percent of European exports to the United States, while Europe commits to buy more energy and military procurement from the U.S. Upon the announcement of the deal, the euro fell and global equities fell, while U.S. equities were modestly higher. And Donald Trump was happy.
All true as far as it goes. But that summary misses the bigger theme of this deal. And that theme is clear: It’s embarrassment. And I mean embarrassment of several kinds.
First, that of the Europeans.
The EU suffered the real shame of having weak bargaining leverage. As the deal was being concluded, the highly astute economist Olivier Blanchard (who hails from France) tweeted: “Why on earth should the European Union be willing to accept, as it seems ready to do, the 15% tariff? Are we really so weak that this is the best we can hope for?”
I was tempted to reply with one word: Oui.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Tyler Cowen
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://bariweiss.substack.com feed and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
