It makes sense, the EU buckled and are being made to pay tribute to the US. Another angle I've read somewhere, is that the EU elites have so much invested in the US, they are effectively owned by them. If the markets in the US tank, the EU stands to lose their wealth. I've been saying it for a long time; the EU isn't a democracy, it is owned and operated by former Princes and Count von Wotsits. With this latest deal, they've shored up their own holdings and told the peasants to suck it up.
Of course, I have little sympathy for the EU as they've been kicking the rest of the world since their establishment.
Broadly speaking, the UK had imposed on them a tariff rate of 10%, while the EU gets 15%.
The weakness of the EU structure has been fully exposed. There was the unelected Ursula von der Leyen shaking hands with Donald Trump and taking whatever deal was being imposed on the EU, and every country within that bloc gets no say.
Meanwhile the UK, now being outside the tent, gets a better deal.
UK prime minister, Keir Starmer met Donald Trump in Scotland and sat there like a Cheshire cat smiling. OK, I'm getting a bit carried away but Starmer did then look uncomfortable when Trump mentioned he got men out of women's sports, and then he started to squirm again when Trump called the mayor of London a nasty person. Trump again put Starmer on the spot over death taxes, pointing out he'd scrapped them, thus rescuing family farms from the banks. Starmer is a fail on every one of these points, and sits opposite Trump on the issue, but he just sat there, no doubt thinking 10%, 10%, 10%.
Starmer is so weak, and Von der Leyen weaker. But I'd like to know what went on behind the scenes between the US and the EU. One day, the EU is talking tough, then the next day they've rolled over. This was the fastest climb down seen this century - no joke.
I predicted this would happen: the EU has buckled and like the UK, will do as they're told by the US. Mark this one down as a victory for the US. Any day now and the EU will blame China for something, everything, just because:
The United States and European Union have reached a trade deal framework, ending a months-long standoff between two of the world's biggest economic partners.
After make-or-break negotiations between President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen in Scotland, the pair agreed a US tariff on all EU goods of 15%.
That is half the 30% import tax rate Trump had threatened to implement starting on Friday. He said the 27-member bloc would open its markets to US exporters with zero per cent tariffs on certain products.
