Tariff War between USA and EU?

The EU considers putting a punitive tariff on several items imported from the USA, IF the USA first puts up punitiv tariffs on steel and aluminium exported by the EU to the USA.

Which items would the tariffs be applied to you ask?
In particular, the focus would be on agricultural export products, including potatoes and tomatoes, and orange juice from the state of California. In addition, Europeans wanted to counter Donald Trump's government with countervailing products that were economically attractive to the constituencies of supporters of the president.

These include motorcycles because the manufacturer, Harley-Davidson, is based in Wisconsin, which is home to Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

Mention will also Bourbon whiskey from Tennessee and Kentucky, home of the majority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell. (translated by google bc I am lazy)

In fact, before you go on a meltdown, this list was compiled back in the days of George W. Bush with.. some.. recent updates.


Sooo.. What do you say?
Tariffs on both sides, or just tariffs against steel&aluminium, or full blown up tariff war between USA and EU? Or none at all?

a reply to: ManFromEurope


I expect they will work out a compromise tit for tat type tariffs so everybody can go look I did something.

Or I may just be feeling excessively cynical about how useless both our govt's are.

The EU is falling apart.

Let them put up their tariffs, they won't last long.

No Harley's, potatoes,and whiskey for you.
It must be the end of the world.

So if I understand this correctly the EU is upset Trump might apply sanctions to their products like they do to US products entering the EU. The EU is sneaky they add a VAT tax and they set up requirements making it more expensive for the manufacturers to compete. Makes me wonder what deal the UK will work out with them as well. I have a feeling trade with the EU is about to decrease.

originally posted by: watchitburn
The EU is falling apart.

Let them put up their tariffs, they won't last long.

Why?

Because of the missing/expensive tomatoes, potatoes and whiskey? Which we already do have here, too?

I don't mention the Harleys bc I do not like them. Personal thing.

Yep. We all knew there was going to be corrections coming in Trade. The President of the US was quite vocal about it.

There's a lot of push all over the place that can happen.

Imagine that li'l Bourbon problem from the OP. Now imagine how bad that could turn if the US stopped allowing empty Bourbon barrels being moved overseas. You guys got enough white oak to make casks and keep your wonderful Scotch whisky flowing?

a reply to: dragonridr

Where did you get that Trump put up a tariff AFTER the EU did so? Which sanction by the EU would that be? I do not know of any existing right now. That does not mean that there can be none, I simply might not have noticed about them, but I am curious.

I understood the article as following:

(1) USA establishes sanctions against steel and aluminium imports from the EU.
(2) EU does the same for tomatoes, potatoes, whiskey and too-loud Harleys.

a reply to: dragonridr

if trade with the EU decreases, and China is not budging, were basically out of NAFTA, then the US is _____. (fill in the blank with a reality or denial adjective).

we must not weaponize trade.... there are no winners. especially on agricultural goods...

As far as i know the USA does not pay into the eu common fund, so that is a plus for the USA, likewise with China and japan.

C'mom what kind of stimmungsmachers wrote this dribble?
First they tell us that products from republican states get hit and then it turns out these sanctions go back to the Bush era?
Because if you say Harley I say speaker of the house Ryan. And don't even get me started on burbon and McConnel, they go hand in hand obviously

Any word on the extra tariffs regarding orange spray cans? XXS gloves? SingleChoice IQ tests?

a reply to: pikestaff

Why is that (what is "that" exactly?) an advantage for the USA, if they sell less items to foreign countries?

Do you think that the import tariffs on steel and aluminium would improve the situation for the USA?

a reply to: Jubei42


You read that part about "recent updates" to the list? I think that the EU tries to target specific segments of the USA, punishing them for voting for Trump. Just guessing, really.

The US levies a 350% tariff on tobacco. That comes from mostly from Republican states. That's insane.

Tariffs are the antithesis of free trade (any of you Trump people that claim to be libertarians and support him fighting trade wars need to read a book). We shouldn't be getting in to trade wars with our allies or anyone else.

The freer trade is the more capital that's exchanging hands rather than being concentrated in one place. Which is the only way a consumer based economy can successfully exist.

So people want the EU to collapse because their politics are too liberal by using a tax levied to business owners being hurt by someone else's ability to be more efficient or cheap.

The US government should use taxes to hurt actual capitalism and free trade. #ing communists.

originally posted by: watchitburn
The EU is falling apart.

Let them put up their tariffs, they won't last long.

They are going to have a huge hole in their economy after Brexit which

they will have to find a way to fill !!!

Britain's exit from the European Union means that one of the bloc's biggest economies will stop making contributions to its budget. This raises questions as to how long the U.K. will continue to pay its share of the budget and how can the EU fill the gap once Britain has officially left. The U.K.

a reply to: eletheia

So is that huge hole before or after the UK pays back 50 billion pounds to the EU?

originally posted by: Jubei42
a reply to: eletheia

So is that huge hole before or after the UK pays back 50 billion pounds to the EU?

^^That is still in discussion^^ not finalised yet.....

How ever much money the EU gets it manages to get through, so wont last them long

then what?? 20 plus of the countries are not self sufficient?? Greece? Portugal? Italy?

If there is to be one I hope the EU loses and comes out of far worse off.

Just on principle.

The sooner the EU is gone the better the world will be.

I don't think the US is great by any stretch of the imagination, especially not on the world stage but the EU is even worse.

Both should learn to stop sticking their noses into the affairs of sovereign states in general.

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
a reply to: dragonridr

Where did you get that Trump put up a tariff AFTER the EU did so? Which sanction by the EU would that be? I do not know of any existing right now. That does not mean that there can be none, I simply might not have noticed about them, but I am curious.

I understood the article as following:

(1) USA establishes sanctions against steel and aluminium imports from the EU.
(2) EU does the same for tomatoes, potatoes, whiskey and too-loud Harleys.

I didn't say trump put up tariffs he hasn't yet. However the EU has tariffs against US products. For example wine gets hit hard not only is it subjects to tariffs but the EU has subsidizes growers making competition difficult. It also bans meat and dairy products as well. Then generally EU tariffs (customs duties) which are based on the international Harmonized System (HS) of product classification. Duty rates on manufactured goods from the United States generally range from 5-8% and are usually based on the c.i.f. value of the goods at the port of entry. The c.i.f. value is the price of the goods (usually the sales price) plus packing costs, insurance, and freight charges to the port of entry.

So then in accordance with EU regulations, agricultural and food items are often subject to import levies that vary depending on world market prices. The rates are based on the composition of foods and in particular some packaged foodstuffs can be affected. And finally an effective method to make US products more expensive is the VAT system.Unlike customs duty, which is the same for all EU member countries, VAT is established by the tax authorities of each country. But it allows them to tax cost of packaging and shipping which is obviously more expensive then in the EU. Some countries are as high as 28 percent on US goods thats a lot when you add shipping and insurance costs.

The EU is very protective of their markets they just don't want to call them tariffs.

PS the US is learning this trick and discussing instead of tariffs on steel imply increasing the costs of steel import licensing.

a reply to: dragonridr

Hmm. Your info is correct (found a database, here is an example for flower bulbs etc.).

But as you said, usually the tariff is low, to not disturb free trade too much (just taking a bit of the top, and some slices from the left and the right side of the cake, and maybe some taste of the filling, too... so to say)

The punitive tariff would be much more, of course.

Okay, in this case, tariffs are plenty abound. And some stuff isn't wanted from the other country (like Kinder-chocolate eggs or HFCS - oh, compare the German version of wikipedia on this topic to the English version. Quite some difference..), so there are regulations there, too.

Now, is this just a show to embolish the way of "buy local"?