Reference News Network, July 29 report: The German newspaper "Handelsblatt" website published an article titled "Europe Bows to Trump in Tariff Dispute - At a High Cost" on July 27, authored by Torsten Rieke.

The article states that before the showdown, the EU clearly failed to lower the punitive tariffs threatened by US President Trump below the "pain threshold" of 15%. The imbalance in power between the US and Europe is obviously huge.

Even before holding a key meeting with von der Leyen, Trump criticized so-called European "unilateral unfair" trade practices. However, the president of the European Commission sat silently during the meeting, enduring these lies without refuting them at all. A dialogue of equality is not like this.

Therefore, Europe will have to accept basic tariffs in the future, and trade experts are worried that this will significantly weaken the competitiveness of the German economy. Now we can say that von der Leyen at least prevented the worst situation from happening, as Trump had threatened to impose tariffs of at least 30% on the EU. However, if we celebrate this as a success, it means bowing to the White House and its intimidation tactics.

The article points out that despite its economic strength, the EU failed to achieve better results through negotiations than Japan. Compared to the UK, which has basically achieved balance in commodity trade with the US, Brussels' performance is clearly worse.

Finally, the EU painfully realized that trade between the two major Western economic groups would become more difficult and expensive. This will harm both Europe and the US, whether in the short or long term.

Von der Leyen once mentioned the necessary "rebalancing" of transatlantic relations. Now, this "rebalancing" has been achieved, but it clearly leans unfavorably towards Europe.

The German magazine "Der Spiegel" website published an article titled "Europe Bows to Trump" on July 27, authored by Michael Schäfer.

The article states that Trump met with European Commission President von der Leyen and announced that the two trading blocs had reached an agreement.

The agreement reached after weeks of negotiations is better than a trade war, but still represents a surrender by Europe. In the name of so-called "peace," they gave up values and principles that they had recently insisted were inviolable.

The EU agreed to tariff the goods exported to the US at 15%, while American products will be able to enter Europe duty-free in the future. This is a one-sided favor for the US and a mockery of international trade rules. Before reaching the agreement, the EU had vowed to defend the global trade order, but now it's clear: the EU has surrendered.

More outrageously, the US maintained the 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum essentially unchanged, which also clearly violates global rules. Europe will also purchase $75 billion worth of energy from the US and invest an additional $60 billion in the US. This is similar to the concessions Trump recently extracted from Japan.

The article says the only positive aspect is that the agreement eliminated the threat of a 30% tariff by Trump and reduced the car tariff from the current 27.5% to 15%. Both sides kept some aviation products, agricultural products, chemicals, and generic drugs duty-free, which is also a benefit.

Nevertheless, the agreement will cause economic losses on both sides of the Atlantic. It also exposes the EU's inability to face this American "tariff man." The EU economy is weak, and it is militarily dependent on the US, and it is fundamentally unable to engage in a prolonged and unpredictable trade war with a country that still needs to rely on it in the confrontation with Russia.

Europeans can only accept the bitter result of the transatlantic trade negotiations. For them, rather than lamenting the lost era of hyper-globalization, they should focus on improving their internal market. The EU should also expand trade relations with countries that Trump also wants to exclude from the US market. (Translated by Nie Litao, Jiao Yu)

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7532351419425686051/

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