{"id":1531360,"date":"2025-04-20T12:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T16:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1531360"},"modified":"2025-04-20T12:10:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T16:10:00","slug":"europe-you-cant-sit-on-the-sidelines-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/europe-you-cant-sit-on-the-sidelines-anymore\/1531360\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe, You Can’t Sit On The Sidelines Anymore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Europe, You Can’t Sit On The Sidelines Anymore<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via The Daily Signal,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to talk today about the role of China, the United States, and the European Union, or just\u00a0Europe in general<\/a>, in the context of these tariffs and the so-called trade wars.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now,\u00a0President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0has given a 90-day reprieve from high tariffs. I think that 10% tariffs are still in existence. And they are negotiating with a number of European countries and particularly, Asian dynamic economies, such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. In addition to that, they are targeting China with tit-for-tat tariffs. And we are maybe on the brink\u2014nobody wants it, but we might be on the brink of a trade war, which we\u2019ve addressed in earlier videos.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s my point.<\/p>\n

What is the attitude of Europe?<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roughly, China has a $1 trillion deficit with the world. We have about a $1 trillion deficit in trade with the world. But here\u2019s the ratios. About a third of our deficit is with China, which makes up a third of their surplus. In addition to that, Europe makes up about a third of their surplus.<\/p>\n

So, China has called on Europe to join forces with it to prevent all of the retaliatory tariffs that the United States has threatened Europe, which has a $200 billion surplus with us, and China, which has a nearly high $300 billion, maybe even $400 billion, who knows?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of crazy, isn\u2019t it, that these illiberal apparatchiks\u00a0in China<\/a>\u00a0would think that a Western democracy would want to join them against the United States?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think that\u2019s gonna happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the European Left is very angry at the Trump administration.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, Choice One might be<\/strong>, \u201cWell, we don\u2019t like the Chinese and we are an ally of the Americans, who subsidize our defense, but we detest the Trump administration. So maybe, (wink and nod) we\u2019ll either be quiet or hope China wins that trade war and the United States, under the Trump administration, backs off all tariffs.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That would be a big mistake<\/strong> given their vulnerabilities they have with the United States vis-a-vis security.<\/p>\n

The second attitude might be<\/strong> the Europeans will just say, \u201cWe\u2019ll lay low. We won\u2019t say much at all. We\u2019ll kind of drag out our tariff negotiations with the Trump administration. And we\u2019ll let the Chinese and the United States battle it out. And if Trump should win and he lowers the amount of trade with China, maybe that will be an opening for us to replace China as the United States chief importer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That is something that I don\u2019t think will happen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The third scenario<\/strong> is what I would suggest for the Europeans. They should say the following: \u201cDespite our disagreements with the Trump administration, the United States is an ally. And we know that we have been as victimized by Chinese mercantilism, high tariffs, cheating on patents, copyrights, dumping, financial money manipulation\u2014all the things the United States complains about, we do too. In fact, we as Europeans in a whole have about the same deficit with China as the United States does. So, we are kindred spirits. So, what we will do is, even though we have disagreements on our surplus with the United States and their efforts to reduce it, we will ally with the United States.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And that would represent about two-thirds of China\u2019s total\u00a0trade action<\/a>\u00a0or monetary value. And especially, if Japan and our allies in\u00a0South Korea<\/a>, Taiwan would join, then China would find out that about 85% of its trade is in a block. That is, they are united. And they have common complaints against China. And China would not be able to say to the United States, \u201cWe\u2019re going to cut deals with Vietnam and Japan and Taiwan and South Korea and the EU and leave you out in the cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, the Europeans and, to a lesser extent, the Asian powerhouses would join the United States and say, \u201cYou know what? We\u2019ve been quiet. We\u2019re afraid of China. They\u2019re bullies. But now that you\u2019ve stood up, we\u2019re embolden ourselves to air the same complaints as you are and hope that you win.<\/strong> And maybe a byproduct of reduced trade with China from the United States will open a door. So, even though we might have to lower our tariffs, there will be more opportunity in the American market with a less prominent Chinese trade profile that we can then be welcomed in as a kindred ally.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Europe has two or three choices in this proposed Chinese-American trade standoff. <\/strong>Nobody wants a trade war with anybody. No one wants it with China. But this is long overdue. And Europe has to decide what course they\u2019re going to take. And for everybody\u2019s sake, let\u2019s hope they choose wisely.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSun, 04\/20\/2025 – 08:10<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/europe-you-cant-sit-sidelines-anymore<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Europe, You Can’t Sit On The Sidelines Anymore Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via The Daily Signal, I\u2019d like to talk today about the role…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1531360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6qnm","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1531360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1531360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1531360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1531360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}