If you follow German and EU business news....this week has been chaotic. The WTO came out and shocked the EU by agreeing with the Trump-team....yes, the EU has offered up or set up....subsides to benefit companies.
Value? 7.5 billion dollars.
Up until this point, the EU thought they had an airtight case. The ones really hurt by this situation? Well....the Germans suffer more than most other countries. Tariff-wise, it's a pain, and it comes when a recession is starting up in Germany.
It's safe to say that these tariffs that the Trump government will start now (being legal by the WTO decision) got the Germans to grumbling in a serious fashion.
But you have to ask this question....did the TTIP agreement that failed to come together between the EU and the Obama Administration in 2016....really open this whole mess up? To some degree. If the agreement had been settled....a number of things would have been laid on that table, and clearly understood by all parties. So at this point....there is still no real EU-US trade agreement? Correct....it's all a country-by-country situation (a patchwork), and Trump is holding the carrot to get the EU back to the table. (He knows that too).
Did Trump get smart and use the right tool in this case....the WTO? Yes, and that's part of the anger....he went precisely to the system that is supposed to be used to identify illegal subsides, and punish the guilty party.
Will the Germans put pressure on the EU to act, and resolve this? Well....the cost if $7.5 billion dollars. Someone will have to put that money on the table, and it'll have to come out of some 'pocket'. The fact that they already paid out the money to various companies as subsides? So it's double-paid? It's best not to bring this up to a German....it'll just freak them out that the politicians were this stupid to start with.
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