> Europe is now locked in intense trade negotiations with both the world’s superpowers. It faces a threat of 50% tariffs from America to be imposed on July 9th, though these have been thrown into chaos by a court ruling blocking them which the Trump administration is appealing against. At the same time, it is trying to reset its relationship with China, with a summit also due in July.
> The result is a tricky triangular dynamic. Europe has to be increasingly mindful of how America’s dealings with China affect its own economy and security. “In this triangle, each side is watching the other two suspiciously,” says Steven Everts of the EU Institute for Security Studies, the bloc’s internal think-tank. And Europe is doubly vulnerable. When it comes to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, Donald Trump’s America and Xi Jinping’s China both have positions at odds with Europe’s security interests. Europe’s economy, which was already flatlining, is now under renewed threat from both American tariffs and Chinese competition.
> …
> China’s strategy for Europe remains unchanged. It would like to peel the continent away from America, weakening and dividing the West, ideally at low cost to itself. Mr Trump made that easier by undermining Europe’s security and economy. He has also made sure that the EU and its members now have to think about de-risking from both sides, which limits the ambition on de-risking from China. None of this helps the EU’s chances of getting much of what it wants when it sits down to negotiate with the dragon.
justkillmeonce on
Threesome with the commie bureaucrat and fascist con man is hard. Who would have thought!
OrganicKeynesianBean on
Europe should just open a dimensional rift and trade with another European Union from a slightly different timeline.
3 Comments
https://archive.ph/Hsr9Y
> Europe is now locked in intense trade negotiations with both the world’s superpowers. It faces a threat of 50% tariffs from America to be imposed on July 9th, though these have been thrown into chaos by a court ruling blocking them which the Trump administration is appealing against. At the same time, it is trying to reset its relationship with China, with a summit also due in July.
> The result is a tricky triangular dynamic. Europe has to be increasingly mindful of how America’s dealings with China affect its own economy and security. “In this triangle, each side is watching the other two suspiciously,” says Steven Everts of the EU Institute for Security Studies, the bloc’s internal think-tank. And Europe is doubly vulnerable. When it comes to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, Donald Trump’s America and Xi Jinping’s China both have positions at odds with Europe’s security interests. Europe’s economy, which was already flatlining, is now under renewed threat from both American tariffs and Chinese competition.
> …
> China’s strategy for Europe remains unchanged. It would like to peel the continent away from America, weakening and dividing the West, ideally at low cost to itself. Mr Trump made that easier by undermining Europe’s security and economy. He has also made sure that the EU and its members now have to think about de-risking from both sides, which limits the ambition on de-risking from China. None of this helps the EU’s chances of getting much of what it wants when it sits down to negotiate with the dragon.
Threesome with the commie bureaucrat and fascist con man is hard. Who would have thought!
Europe should just open a dimensional rift and trade with another European Union from a slightly different timeline.