I will quote what an American wrote and I agree with him , except with the insult. And the person who wrote this is an American conservative.
" Despite what many economically illiterate MAGAtards claim, the EU is easily capable of causing immense economic pain for 🇺🇸 if it needs to. Scholz is correct there. It’s 1 trading bloc.
U. S.-EU economic relationship is larger & more important than any other economic & trade
relationship on earth.
Well above US-Canada , US-Mexico , and U. S.-PRC. And orders of magnitude beyond US-Japan , US-UK or U. S.-ROK.
It’s a behemoth.
Its GDP is the size of China.
Like 4x Japan.
5x India.
Germany by itself - just 1 EU country - has a GDP in excess of 4 trillion dollars.
That’s larger than Japan. And much larger than India.
Anyone who thinks the EU would just have to get on its knees and show a white flag is an economically illiterate dolt.
Germany? EU
France? EU
Netherlands? EU
Italy? EU
Poland? EU
Sweden? EU
Spain? EU
Belgium? EU
Austria? EU
Denmark? EU
Finland? EU
Ireland? EU
Get the picture?
In trade & Econ terms it is a tier 1 power. A global heavyweight by any objective measure.
Which means it can inflict severe pain if you have a large economic relationship with it (trade , investment etc).
I know the dotard doesn’t understand any of this but anyone with a rudimentary understanding of economics , trade & geopolitics does. "
Why do some Americans think that imposing tariffs on the EU will have virtually no impact on the American economy?
I'll be contrary as usual because I don't add anything by echoing the obvious.
I think a point to note is the US is more stand alone than most developed countries. US has 27% trade to GDP ratio. EU is about 100% and Germany is about 90%, France 73%. These numbers include imports and exports. US exports are only 11% of it's GDP..
What I take from this is the US is much less vulnerable than most other countries. If all exports stopped the US would be less affected than Germany would be. Of course the US would be affected but that is not say it would be as affected as others. Import replacements would add to US economy so there is a factor of how readily Country A and Country B can replace imports internally.
Trump is pointing out if companies relocate to the US then there will be no tariffs. Post Norde Stream sabotage and Putin's, BASF seems to have plans to relocate to the US. Dunno what the latest state is on that.
Japan is fairly clever in that it sets up factories in major importing countries. Trump is sort of doing the inverse in saying manufacture here.
Your GDP/trade figures don't tell the whole story. First of all, like many countries, the USA is dependent on supply chains (chips, etc.), which are essential links in the high-tech American economy. A real trade war between the eu and the usa would have consequences for American jobs, leading to unemployment, high inflation, loss of confidence in the economy, and consequently on the stock market, not to mention the fact that europeans invest a lot in the American economy. all this put together, you can easily understand that it would have a much greater impact than a simple analysis of GDP would suggest.
Of course, the results won't be very good for the EU, but forgive me for saying that those who think that a real trade war between the USA and the EU would have a limited impact on the American economy are simply full of shit.
Gross numbers are a very high level and don't reflect finer levels and unintended consequences at all.
Semi conductor fabrication is a prime example of supply chains. Europe has two massively important companies in lithography Zeis (Germany) and ASML (The Netherlands). Incredibly complex & diverse. Who knew Ukraine was an important member of semi conductor supply chains before Putin's War? Relatively easily to replace fortunately.
I quite take your point on supply chains and nonlinear systems.
Still gross measures are significant. Like Putin running his troops into machine guns, you can waste strength but it is still advantageous to have it. As a first approximation.
One of our PMs boasted "I'll Crash Through OR Crash". There is quite possibly an element of this in Trump. That particular PM crashed.
@RavVid Your trade numbers, when you talk about Germany, say, I think you mean their imports and exports within the EU as well as with other areas. Hardly apples to apples when comparing with the US' external trade.
Scump "announcing" that he suddenly wants companies to "come back to the USA" is so laughable my stomach hurts. Remember how he took credit for reworking NAFTA into the "best trade agreement ever"? I haven't forgotten. Nor have I forgotten how Congress gave its blessing to American companies relocating to Mexico, China, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Indonesia, just to name a few. See a common thread? Cheap, cheap labor. Even Scump's merch are made in China. LOL It's a joke.
No American company is rushing back to the USA to build, reopen or expand any factories it may have there. Why would they? Tariffs don't affect corporate profits, the importer and consumer pay for them. This is just more flooding of the field to create chaos.
If they relocate to the US then there won't be tariffs to the US market but to everywhere else. Some companies have already pulled plans on relocating to US. This doesn't mean that building some jeans factory in USA would be stupid but production would have to be planned mostly for the internal American market.
@Pohjolan Yes most likely. As I understand it the US has low tariffs comparatively. Textiles aren't high tech but in some ways the choice is between job subsidies via tariffs versus welfare.
My country went the welfare path and I think it was a mistake. Tariffs are undoubtedly a burden on people in other industries.
because somehow americans thing that the foreign countries are gonna have to pay the tariffs. i think many people don't understand the dynamic that not the foreign companies are paying. you are. and the promise is that it long term will improve the economy by incentivising local production, increasing wages... but that doesn't happen cause pretty much all even local industries have at least some import aspect somewhere in the production chain. so shit is just gonna get more expensive, companies will be forced to close, there will be less jobs and then other countries will probably decide to retaliate making everything even worse. so yeah. it sounds good if you don't understand anything. but if you have a basic understanding of macro economics, you know tariffs are a desaster if your entire economy depends on imports.
Most Americans don't care, they care about MCD burgers cost 3 times and eggs 5 times than 3 years ago. Geopolitics is for most people irrelevant like the snow from last year, even though it affects their lives more in long run than usual red vs. blue political BS. In my opinion Trump makes usual dance of a failed empire, while pissing on your former friends, trying to pander to system enemies like Russia with the hope Putin will commit a suicide and side with US and play a proxy war party against China. This will not happen but EU will probably invest money to increase capacity of 'silk road' main railway line between EU and China. Tariffs will affect slightly EU economy but it's a free market and EU has a ton of patented wares especially in medical branch. Specific medication becomes even more expensive as it is now.
The lazy American mindset. To be blunt. They have no idea how tariffs really work. They are told it will help them, instead of researching for themselves (which is too much fuss and bother) they simply believe the person telling them.
The point of action is to effect change. Trump is imposing reciprocal tariffs numbnuts. That means if you tariff America at 10% then America tariffs you at 10%, if you tariff America at 1000% then America tariffs you at 1000%. If you drop all tariffs on America, then America drops all tariffs on you. If you still want tariffs in your country, but don't like ours, you can build a factory under your company in America and avoid tariffs. It's pretty simple. It's about creating reciprocity between nations, thus creating fair trade. Clearly you want trade to be unfair in Europe's favor. Well too bad. You can't always get what you want cry baby. Time to grow up.
@Julie4 Yeah we know Julie4. We look at you every day and notice that exact thing about you. It's very out there in the open for all to see. No need to state the obvious.
@genericname85goaded You pretty much miss everything Goaded. I've never seen a single keen observation from you. You consistently fail at everything you do and say. Thus why your people are completely out of power. You're on the outside, due to numerous things you have missed.
Julie4 If you and your political party had even average intelligence, it would be a non-issue for you. You'd just drop your tariffs and have none to worry about, but you're dumb and there is nothing we can to to fix that.
The eu can impose customs taxes at the level of the usa , it's up to Trump to decide what he wants to do. But like the Trumpians, you're mentally retarded.
Not like a Socialist would actually understand how international trade and shipping occurs anyway or how ships are flagged. Even a retarded Navy Seaman that enlisted with a GED has a better grasp of international trade than you.
You are a clown who pretends to be intelligent, but who understands nothing at all. And you think you impress me with your words 🤣 Trump is attacking or trying to attack these allies for reasons of trade deficit, but the usa has the largest trade deficit with China, but Trump takes only minor measures against China.
If Trump wants to tax the EU massively, we'll tax the US massively, oh yes, that's reciprocity.
I doubt that's even something that you know you should know... You don't even know what you don't know. You're a want to be pseudo–intellectual retard. It should be embarrassing for you, but you're too narcissistic to notice your shortcomings.
Nobody is trying to impress you. That's just how you see the world through your narcissistic lenses. Everything is image for you, because you're an egotistic sociopath.
I know that's what you see in the mirror, but your reflection is only in mirrors you stand in front of when light is bouncing off of you. I won't see you in my mirror.
Hahaha! Meanwhile you keep enjoying those tariffs. We have the power. You want to trade with us, then you have to play by our rules. If you don't, fine with us go find another market.
Wow, you are either... 1.) Dumber than a bag of rocks. 2.) Lying your ass off. 3.) Spewing the cult party line. 4.) All of the above.
tRump isn't enacting reciprocal tariffs. Every tariff he's announced so far has been a punitive attempt at blackmail / coercion. It's an attempt to bully other countries into doing some stupid thing he wants. And that is totally in character for the absolute most stupid creature to ever enter the White House. I'm including family dogs in that statement.
@OneViewpoint Oh look the same old socialist sock puppet that doesn't know how to read. What a surprise. Even Reuters who was funded by USAID to feed into mockingbird media for all you dipshits reported on Trump's reciprocal tariffs days ago as did the Associated Press. Not that it matters anyways due to how fleets of ships are flagged worldwide... Panama will be a big deal though... Like I said, socialist don't know anything about international business, even though you call yourselves globalists. There's not one of you with an IQ above 70. You're fucking 58 and don't know shit I knew when I was 15 years old. It's crazy.
It's not like the EU would try to cause economic pain to USA per se.
Like banning products with unhealthy chemicals is to protect the customers not the internal market. Maybe Americans should rather have asked why companies like Nestle don't produce the export variant for the US market as well.
Overall its going to be about adapting and finding new customers at other markets.
by the way its basic economics that a economy having issues with inflation is better off increasing exports that reducing imports.
I bet Trump will come to the negotiating table before 2028.
LOL, it's not ONLY the EU that tRump and the Trumptards are hell bent on "owning" with tariffs and a trade war. They think the US can unilaterally impose tariffs on ALL of their trading partners with zero impact on the US economy.
Realize that these people are all absolute morons who can't even spell economics. This is a tutorial in how to destroy the largest economy on the planet in the shortest time possible.
You know, I'm wondering if the EU has tariffs on US goods, and if so, were they higher than US tariffs?
I'm also wondering how this great, wealthy trading power known as the EU would protect itself if the US were no longer willing to do it. Can you tell me how that would work?
Don't you think you should look it up? (I'm pretty sure the answer is no, because Trump's equating VAT with tariffs; VAT is a tax on all European consumers, not the producers.)
@goaded: VAT is rebated on exports to non-EU countries. Countries like the US that don't have VAT don't have this rebate for exporters and their importers don't pay it.
The WTO system is biased in favor of countries that have VAT.
And, no, the EU is not just charging VAT on imports from the US (it does have higher tariffs):
Goods sold in the EU are ALL taxed with VAT, no matter where they're made. That's a fair system. Goods sold in the US are not taxed with VAT, no matter where they're made. That's a fair system, too.
From your link, anyone can see that none of them are anything like 25%, and the average (far right) differs by a fraction of 1%.
@goaded: Do you know what sales tax is? Apparently you don't. Do you know what it means to have exports from the EU to non-EU countries exempt from VAT? Apparently you don't.
I do know what sales tax is, and it applies to goods sold in whichever state independent of where the product was produced, just like VAT (which also varies among EU countries). US goods sold in the EU don't have US sales taxes applied, they have VAT, and vice versa. It's fair in both directions.
As usual, you don't listen. Exports from Germany to non-EU countries, for example, benefit from a 7-19% discount because of VAT not being applied to exports. Furthermore, the euro's trade weighted value is far less than a deutsche mark would be, meaning that Germany benefits from a very undervalued currency.
I am listening, you're just not making sense. With VAT and sales tax, the companies get the same amount of money for their goods wherever they're sold. Customers pay more for the products in Europe than in the US, but that has no effect on the company's income, it's independent of where the product is manufactured.
Tariffs are different. A tariff on one country by another makes the products coming in more expensive than the home-made ones. And while we've agreed that there are tariffs between the US and EU, you've shown that they're almost the same and nothing like the sort of level Trump is proposing.
Because MAGA thinks tariffs are a tax placed on exported goods. They think the EU is paying the tariffs. They haven't yet figured out that tariffs are taxes placed on imported goods, which means they, the USA, pay the tariffs. So these cretins think the EU is paying them extra for the privilege of buying American goods. That's their interpretation of tariffs. And they're about to get rid of the department of education so get ready for some real stupidity. Trump will declaring the earth flat before too long.
People generally believe whatever they want to believe, regardless of facts. It's whatever feels most convenient to them. You can find someone to believe just about any idea imaginable; no matter how ridiculous.
I would suggest that the entire point of imposing tariffs on Europe is that it's going to impact the US economy.
27.1K opinions shared on Society & Politics topic.
Trump's policy is a reciprocal tariff. If a country puts a 100% tariff on American products , Trump puts a 100% tariff on their products. Most counties have figured this out. The US is their biggest customer and it will be hard to replace all that revenue.
It will have an effect on the economy. America will start to export more goods and also will make more goods domestically, creating good jobs.
@goaded I forget the actual numbers but foreign countries have been placing tariffs on American goods for years creating an unfair trade arrangement. It was very one sided. Trump is fixing this.
Try to find the actual numbers. At the moment, it looks like he's counting VAT, which is paid by EU consumers on all goods, no matter where they come from.
I think imposing tariffs is a bad idea altogether and so do many people on the right.. It just comes back to the people at the end of the day.. But, it seems that Trump imposes tariff to scare other countries rather than to actually go through with it.. It helped with Mexico and Canada.. They caved..
Agreed , thinking that tarrifs are some kind of " answer " , it's simply ludicrous, everyone would pay , destruction would be huge. Let's see what actually happens , but tariffs were never a good idea.
It is not in the interests of the eu and usa to have this trade war. Above all, I think that the USA and the EU should remain close allies in order to be able to compete against our common enemies.
because you retards in Europe are already chocking to death with all of your failed policies and corruptions. you guys need us more than we need you and the fact that the loser we had as president last decided to sent Ukraine 300 Billions of our tax money speaks loud enough.
but wait until we make you all pay it back to us. we will see who will get the big impact
Trump has 0 idea how tarrifs actually work and refuses to believe the actual description, when it has been told to him by a multitude of people. The USA doesn't have much in terms of export, so it hurts the USA economy way more than any other. With companies in the usa always wanting record profits, and their insatiable greed, the inflation will never come down, even if the tariffs are removed.
Probably for the same reason that so many people, most of whom likely have no experience in this area, have apparently already decided that the plan won’t work, because they’re so bitter and angry.
The USA doesn't need other countries like they need us. Plus, the USA would be much better off financially not helping others. The UK is the only real long time ally to help, the rest of them should be left to fend for themselves.
12.1K opinions shared on Society & Politics topic.
Where did you get your economics degree? Tariffs will inevitably do that. Even the threat of them.
0
0 Reply
Anonymous
(36-45)
1 y
aww. why do those other countries think it's fair to charge tariffs on USA imported products, or not to allow them at all, and not have the US charge tariffs in return? Nobody wants a trade war; we're just looking for some fair trade.
Home > Society & Politics > Questions > Why do some Americans think that imposing tariffs on the EU will have virtually no impact on the American economy?
Girl's Behavior 
Guy's Behavior 
Flirting 
Dating 
Relationships 
Fashion & Beauty 
Health & Fitness 
Marriage & Weddings 
Shopping & Gifts 
Technology & Internet 
Break Up & Divorce 
Education & Career 
Entertainment & Arts 
Family & Friends 
Food & Beverage 
Hobbies & Leisure 
Other 
Religion & Spirituality 
Society & Politics 
Sports 
Travel 
Trending & News 
