Frank Sellers
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, is urging members of the European Union to prepare themselves for ‘worst-case scenarios’ as tensions between Europe and the United States continue to rise. This isn’t the first time Tusk has come out with negative talk about his Trans-Atlantic ally, as he has previously stated that with friends like Trump ‘who needs enemies?’.
Associated Press reports:
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Council President Donald Tusk says the European Union must prepare for the worst due to the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, as a trade war looms between Washington and Brussels.
In a letter to EU leaders Wednesday, Tusk wrote that “trans-Atlantic relations are under immense pressure due to the policies of President Trump.”
Tusk, who chairs a two-day summit of EU leaders in Brussels starting Thursday, said that “unfortunately, the divisions go beyond trade.”
He wrote: “It is my belief that, while hoping for the best, we must be ready to prepare our Union for worst-case scenarios.”
Earlier this month, Trump slapped tariffs on imports of European steel and aluminum. The EU responded with “rebalancing measures” that hit around 2.8 billion euros ($3.25 billion) worth of U.S. products.
The differences between Europe and the United States are typically perceived as that of trade tariffs, and that everything can and will resume the course that it has held for the past several decades just as soon as some sort of agreement is scored between the 28 nation bloc and POTUS Donald Trump, who thinks he’s using these tariffs as a negotiating tool.
However, that’s not entirely the case, and the patch up is not likely to go down precisely in that fashion, as what is happening here is that a major fault line is being exposed between the way the Europeans and Americans perceive trade, international relations, international agreements, and the position of nations in the world order, and perhaps what their definition of these things even is.
Trump believes in national exceptionalism, particularly that of America, and he doesn’t believe in multilateral, rules-based, orders. Europe likes to think in terms of ‘win-win’ agreements between multiple parties, where Trump sees everything in ‘win-lose’ terms, meaning that there are fundamental differences here between what is valued between the Europeans and the Americans. That’s why Tusk is declaring that there is more to this than just a few import taxes.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
70 years of trade policies and trade agreements that were completely one sided in favor of Europe are coming to an end and Tusk and many of the EU politicians see it and don’t like it. “Win-win” sounds great when you are the one always winning and the other country accepts being on the losing side. 70 years of free defense from a superpower is easy to get used to as well. The EU countries are about to find out how important the “guns” part of “guns and butter” economics are. For decades the European elite have looked down their… Read more »
it is going to be messy
The Europeans and the Americans aren’t that different when it comes to their foreign policies. What Tusk is complaining about has to do more with disagreements within the capitalist class, yet this class is united in its imperialist view of the world. European capitalists were America’s willing accomplice in all the war crimes in the Middle East and Israel because they saw huge oil profits. The thing they didn’t anticipate was the blowback, in the form of an immigration crisis, that they’re now dealing with…poorly. If this crisis (of their own making) results in a populist takeover of major European… Read more »
The very ugly side effects of having crawled up the Yankee rectum for so many years.
Whenever I see photos of Tusk, just imagine his grandfather, back in the 40s, together with uniform and company he kept. Wonder if Tusk dresses up as ‘Grandpa Tusk’?
This guy called Tusk is not even Polish. He is of German descendant and his grandfather served in Wehrmacht during WWII so you can not be amazed that he is so strongly adherent to EU organisation He and his alike they want to completely destroy Europe as we know therefore to some extend he is right that differences between Mr Trump and Brussels goes far beyond trade, more importantly these differences are purely ideological because Trump stands for us and they here in Brussels wants to turn the whole Europe culture into pieces and disgrace and replace us white people… Read more »
Serves the EU right and if the EU citizens don’t start asking questions of their leaders, elected or not then they deserve what is coming also. There will be plenty of arse licking going on with China and eventually Russia and both of them have good memories and will put their interests first.