Reference News Network August 5 report: Belgium's "Echo" website published an article titled "Europe Depends on the United States More Than Ever" on August 2. The author is Professor Matthias Matthies of International Political Economy at the Johns Hopkins University in the United States. The article excerpts are as follows:

The US-EU trade agreement once again proves that the path for Europe to free itself from American control and achieve true autonomy remains long. Although the EU could have taken a tougher stance, it ultimately chose compromise.

The EU could have adopted a completely different strategic approach. When Trump imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum products this spring, the EU should have immediately implemented equivalent economic countermeasures. On April 2, when Trump announced his so-called "reciprocal tariffs," Brussels could have imposed severe tariff retaliation on politically sensitive American goods.

The 27 EU member states should have maintained unity, leaving no room for the United States to divide and weaken them. They could even have activated the key weapon of the European "counter-coercion mechanism" to respond to Trump's endless trade attacks.

However, reality took another turn. Led by Germany and Italy, the core countries of the EU quickly reclaimed the negotiation leverage from EU Commission President von der Leyen, opting instead to delay retaliatory tariffs and accept a "Trump-style" agreement. Their logic was simple: any retaliation would complicate the negotiations.

Poland and the Baltic states emphasized that Europe could not afford the cost of angering Trump - which could lead to the United States cutting aid to Ukraine. The collective logic of EU member states is to avoid short-term pain.

This agreement can be described as a "cowardly relief," which is heartbreaking. Whether in terms of NATO defense spending or international trade, the EU has clearly yielded to the capriciousness of this unpredictable U.S. president. Europeans have long been accustomed to enjoying security and prosperity under the protection of American hegemony, but now they must face a more dangerous and uncertain world - but this adaptation process comes at a high cost.

Many EU leaders acknowledge that efforts to develop autonomous strategic tools have not improved the imbalanced relationship between Europe and the United States. From the recent results of the Hague NATO summit to the latest trade agreement, they all indicate that Europe's dependence on the United States is deepening further. In the first two decades of this century, Europe could outsource its energy needs to Russia, rely on the United States for security, and base its economic growth on exports to China; now, it is almost entirely dependent on an increasingly unreliable United States.

A sad and even pitiful scene is that as the world's largest single market, the EU now bows to Trump. In the medium to long term, this agreement may strengthen Europe's determination to free itself from American control. (Translated by Pan Geping)

Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7534964546885124646/

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