World News: Europe Squeezed by U.S Tariff Wars

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Monday, 03 March 2025 10:23

Written by Olivier Longhi

Announcing an increase in customs duties on products from the European Union and now China, Donald Trump is continuing his trade offensive aimed at protecting, he thinks, the economic interests of the United States on a global scale.

Under the guise of increasing customs duties on products from Europe and China, Donald Trump's United States is opening a trade war with uncertain consequences but with growing tensions. Until when?

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The occupant of the White House confirms his belief in a savage, almost primal liberalism that prevailed in the early ages of ideology aimed at promoting free enterprise without limits. This stance is not new, since in the early eighties, Ronald Reagan also tried to deregulate trade routes with, in hindsight, some success.

However, if this increase in customs duties was generally more expected than feared, it calls for a reaction from the areas or countries concerned with consequences that could prove to be unexpected.

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China and the Shallot Race

There is no doubt that China and the European Union will certainly raise their own tariffs on products from the United States, to compensate for the initial increase. So far, nothing could be more classic. Another consequence, and not the least, is that while Donald Trump has made Asia and China in particular declared objectives, it is not impossible that Europeans and Chinese will operate, through an alliance of objective interests, a rapprochement that would have the aim of thwarting North American foreign economic policy, while finding a common fruit.

The last point that still raises questions because he has not seen an ounce of an answer is therefore to know when this increase in customs duties will be interrupted. In a race for the shallot with an unhealthy scent, some guess and feel a growing tension between the United States and its partners, even if it is perhaps still abusive to call them so.

However, it is obvious that the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House has considerably changed the trade relations that prevailed until then. Just as in the case of diplomatic relations, where multilateralism now reigned in a general agreement, the American president shattered the economic and commercial consensus of peaceful relations in which everyone could, in their own way, find an interest.

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Deconstruction and Folding Seat

Convinced by a doctrine of his own and to which many Americans clearly adhere, which tends to make the United States the world's leading power, which it was before Donald Trump came to power, the current president of the United States is deconstructing a world-class organization for the purpose of personal power backed by a few profit-hungry new technology tycoons.

There is therefore nothing good to expect from this customs escalation except to witness the growth of tensions between continents or zones of influence. Europe, long sitting on the folding seat that the United States left them, may have the opportunity to finally federate around a common economic, commercial, diplomatic and military project.

But the slowness of the actors concerned, the divergent interests, in particular of France and Germany, which is so close to the United States for the latter, are all obstacles and pitfalls to a single word and a concerted action capable of opposing that of a country currently far from the image we used to have.

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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.