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EU slams trade 'bullies' as Trump row deepens

23 Comments
By Olivier Douliery

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In revealing those measures, European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker taunted Trump, saying the EU could match "stupid with stupid."

I'm afraid right now we are more stupid than they are.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Canada and Mexico are being blackmailed in accepting a US-centric NAFTA agreement in order to avoid tariffs. Mexico has balked and Canada can't leave the table politically but is privately waiting for talks to fail. This isn't about national security and should be challenged to the WTO

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Our allies? Trump will hit them hard. Its not like he's dealing with Putin.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Attack all allies but do not bring sanctions against Russia

7 ( +8 / -1 )

We don't sanction Russia for anything because we want better relations with them. Just ask any conservative on these threads and you'll hear how shafting our allies is necessary and reasonable whilst punishing a hostile nation for interfering in our democracy is unnecessary and unreasonable.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

But we are not afraid, we will stand up to the bullies," 

Poor little European babies.

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

Jean-Claude Juncker taunted Trump, saying the EU could match "stupid with stupid."

Who knows how stupid Trump's moves might actually be. And who knows if Trump's just doing Putin's bidding, doing what he's told to do by Putin to weaken US relationships with its former allies to bring down Europe and the US so the Russian empire can reclaim its 'lost' territories.

Just ask any conservative on these threads 

There are those on this thread who do claim to be ‘conservatives’, but I think in so doing they’re changing a fairly common definition of the word. 

I doubt any conservative, at least any I know, would say allowing Russia or any other nation to ‘meddle’ in US politics is acceptable. 

I doubt any US conservative would feel more closely connected to a Russian despot than they do to their fellow citizens. Most conservatives believe in democracy and recognize and accept in a properly functioning one there will be an array perspectives, not always friendly.

I doubt any US conservative, regardless of how strong their conservative beliefs are, would want to see US democratic systems, e.g. the balance of powers, law enforcement agencies, a free, for-profit press, undermined.

I doubt any conservative would approve of the president’s fiscal irresponsibility and further increase in the US debt.

I doubt any conservative would accept the president and his family being involved in influence peddling, having conflicts of interest and engaging in nepotism. 

I doubt any conservative would approve of taxpayers having to subsidize the president’s expensive and frequent golf outings.

Most conservatives I know would never want their leaders connected in any way with organized crime in both the US and abroad.

Conservatives I know want a leader who says ‘the buck stops here’ instead of constantly pointing the finger away from him. 'Otherguy did it'.

In my mind those who blindly follow Trump and at the same time claim to be conservatives are giving conservatives a bad name. Which might just be OK.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

These are dark times we are living in. Growing up I never would have guessed the US-EU relationship could break down or imagined a United States using threats and coercion against its allies. Putin must be so proud of Trump.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

PTown: Agreed, except how are we meant to have better relations with Russia if you all keep making a big deal about Russian transgressions?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

 Jean-Claude Juncker taunted Trump, saying the EU could match "stupid with stupid."

You'll never out-stupid Trump. The man has a unique gift for it.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Poor little European babies.

Sophisticated critical discourse.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

They've gone from, "Mr. Gorbachev - tear down this wall!" to, "Let's not respond to their election meddling because it might upset them and that would be bad for us."

It's pretty crazy when you put his statements together as a narrative:

"Putin said he didn't meddle. He said he didn't meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times. Every time he sees me, he says, 'I didn't do that.' And I believe, I really believe, that when he tells me that, he means it. I think he is very insulted by it.

I mean, you have Brennan, you have Clapper and you have Comey. Comey is proven now to be a liar and he is proven now to be a leaker. So you look at that and you have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he had nothing to do with them.

I often talk about it, we are prepared to turn the page and go forward to look into the future to solve the problems that are of interest to people of the United States and people of the Russian Federation."

It's just so weird, isn't it? And his fans can't fathom that it's a weakness because he's Trump and he's strong and what you're saying doesn't make any sense and he's better than Obama and Liberals and...

6 ( +7 / -1 )

It's just so weird, isn't it? And his fans can't fathom that it's a weakness because he's Trump and he's strong and what you're saying doesn't make any sense and he's better than Obama and Liberals and...

Yes, it is weird. But what about Hillary not selling uranium to Russia? What about Obama not being weak? What about Dems not wanting open borders? What about what about?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Poor little European babies.

They’ll live, they’ll be ok. Life is tough.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

Jean-Claude Juncker taunted Trump, saying the EU could match "stupid with stupid."

Patience, young apprentice. Only a fully trained bonehead with ignorance as his ally can hope to do battle with and defeat Darth Stupid S###.

May the covfefe be with you.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Poor little European babies.

Hope you continue that bravado when corresponding EU sanctions come in targeting Repub states, and the cost of steel soars in the US, forcing more American manufacturers abroad. Mexico should welcome this. Maybe they'll shift Harley production to Canada.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Hope you continue that bravado when corresponding EU sanctions come in targeting Repub states, and the cost of steel soars in the US, forcing more American manufacturers abroad. Mexico should welcome this. Maybe they'll shift Harley production to Canada.

Doubt it.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

They’ll live, they’ll be ok. Life is tough.

As will the US, with or without the EU alliance.

It may well be the US slides back into the wild west but it seems, that is what some there want. Isolation, bullying other nations, starting wars (trade or otherwise) and praising Saudi Arabia, Duterte, Putin and other sponsors of mayhem, dictatorships and terror.

The bullies in the US will find themselves running out of sympathies, sadly.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

I doubt any conservative, at least any I know, would say allowing Russia or any other nation to ‘meddle’ in US politics is acceptable. 

That’s why conservatives are so incensed that Hillary’s opposition research harvested from Putin’s intelligence agents was used by officials as an excuse for the Obama Administration to keep tabs on the Trump campaign. Nixon had one failed break-in at the DNC. Hillary and the DNC got months long surveillance of her opponent - using kompromat from Russian spies to facilitate the crime. Luckily she was so incompetent she still lost the election.

The bullies in the US will find themselves running out of sympathies, sadly.

Because being bullied by the Chinese is the way the Leftists prefer their economics.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@bass: They’ll live, they’ll be ok. Life is tough.

I know but what will they do if some day they could no longer run up tens of billions in trade surpluses with the US every year? Their may not be enough safe spaces to heal their privileged souls.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Cecilia Malmstroem and Jean-Claude Juncker are not the real decision makers here. More like these 2 officials are the EU's PR cheerleaders. As a trader/investor, I would only really looked at and listen to what German Chancellor Angela Merkel would do against Trump with these issues. UK and the EU slap tariffs on China's steel about less than a couple years ago or so to save their own butt. I don't buy the EU retaliation thing. EU bureaucrats are just trying to save face to look like they are actually trying to fight back against the bully Trump as the MSM is clearly trying to portray. Forget about retaliation because they won't. There trillions and trillions at stake here in regards to the powerhouse Germany's point of view. There is more to this story than meets the eye.

You see, the one of the biggest market risk at moment is the uncertainty of Brexit terms. More so than Trump's tariffs fulminations at the moment. Currently UK is still at the stage of expounding their conditions. At the same time with all the current formalizing negotiations, Germany has another important issue to address regarding the revenue shortfall. Presently, Britain with about 2.5 USD trillion economy pays roughly 1 billion on a monthly basis to Brussels. This will stop, so EU which is mainly Germany has to discover a way to make up for the billions in taxes lost revenue.

So with this problem, Brexit's 2.5 trillion decreases EU's GDP overall. Merkel's weakened political party as well as attaching her economy to the comprehensive Paris Treaty's environmental regulations (though she's trying to cut down those regs), from a economically logical standpoint, she cannot and will not try to dispute Trump. Getting cut off to the US market's access is a very high risk, low reward that Merkel cannot afford. So in the end, in my opinion Juncker comment about the stupid with stupid thing was not the smartest thing to say because after all this is very hypocritical of him. EU just like any other exporting and manufacturing countries are as protectionist as you can get. So Merkel understands this more than the rest of them as she knows simply they cannot sustain going toe to toe against America on trade.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

As Commerce secretary Ross stated many times that economic security is national security to the US. Economy connects every broad based sector that US economy is built upon. Whether it will be welfare, defense, healthcare, education, financial, etc., the economy is the heart of it all that connects everything. To secure America is to secure the State's economy. If the economy falters so does everything around it collapses also. There is a strategy behind all of this chaos where trillions are at stake here folks.

The world's trade players are fully aware 3-4+ decades of America's trade deals have ended up with enormous massive export of U.S. luxury by way of manufacturing gains as well as jobs within other

nations. The country's underpriviliged middle-class were the losers from the ineffective trade policies by the past administrations but instead all the financial rewards went to the multinational corps and banks as well as of course Wall Street.

So if you reverse engineer the multi decades of failed processes from prior trade policies that had the obvious outcome of export and redistribution of America's wealth... what will happen?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

As will the US, with or without the EU alliance.

Yes.

It may well be the US slides back into the wild west but it seems, that is what some there want.

Looking at LA it does kind of resemble one.

Isolation, bullying other nations, starting wars (trade or otherwise) and praising Saudi Arabia, Duterte, Putin and other sponsors of mayhem, dictatorships and terror.

With the exception of Putin, what’s the problem?

The bullies in the US will find themselves running out of sympathies, sadly.

Most of us don’t care. I sure don’t.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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