Oddly, this Trump-talk over steel and aluminum tariffs came up late yesterday, with a new twist. Some folks suddenly woke up and realized that a couple of countries were going to be given a 'free-pass' (Canada and Mexico are the two mentioned so far). Well....the twist here is that the US might give the UK (after BREXIT) a free-pass.
Yep, that got the EU folks all disturbed. In fact, one rumor says that the free-pass would be offered before the BREXIT talks end. Facts or rumor? Well....after you go and read all the German and Brit press on the idea....nothing is fact.
Would this help the UK after BREXIT? The simple answer here is yes.
But you have to ask yourself....doesn't all this talk and hint-business....all lead back to TTIP (the big trade treaty that came to failure in the last five months of the Obama-period)? Well....yeah, that's the curious thing. If the EU sat down and said X-amount of steel could be imported into the US from Europe (listing out the production levels and countries), then you could write a four-line text that says everything below that line is tariff-free, and everything above that line has a tariff. It'd be very simple. But you'd have to reach the stage where TTIP really occurred.
In the end, as much as the Germans would like to just avoid the TTIP gimmick....this poker game is set for problems unless TTIP exists. Oddly, now the Brits are part of this gimmick and could win big if the German position is to continue avoiding TTIP.
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