The White House is threatening 50% tariffs on all imports from the European Union. Long trade negotiations ended without results. The Europeans proposed a reciprocal tariff reduction to the Americans, but this was unacceptable to Donald Trump. The Republican administration is demanding that Europe unilaterally eliminate tariffs on U.S. exports, while U.S. tariffs on European goods remain unchanged. Brussels was not willing to make such a concession, so now it is in a difficult situation.
In 2024, the trade in goods between the US and the EU reached 1 trillion dollars. Europe has a huge trade surplus – $250 billion – which is why it badly needs the American market. Germany, whose economy is export-oriented, has stagnated for the third year in a row. The German car industry simply cannot survive the prolonged tariff war. The introduction of hard tariffs could bring a severe recession to the European economy. The White House is using blackmail and item-raising tactics against Brussels. With China, this did not work, but the EU seems to be a weaker opponent. Behind the reaction of the US government, the question of European defence policy appears, as the EU leadership is the most capable of criticizing, while shifting all responsibility and NATO costs to Washington. However, American patience is already running out in this matter as well. The head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, criticized Trump’s talks with Putin, but at the same time she continues to expect American protection for Estonia, which has a military budget of only 1.4 billion dollars. Italy, led by Meloni, is proposing to hand out security guarantees like candy, while its own defense spending amounts to only 1.49% of GDP. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the White House is also having problems, accusing Canada of smuggling terrorists into the United States. The FBI has published worrying statistics: in 2024, at least 300 people who are on the terrorist list entered the United States, and 85% of them arrived not through Mexico, but through the northern, Canadian border. While the U.S. Border Patrol managed to reduce the number of migrants arriving through the southern border by 90% after Donald Trump took office, the Canadian border is causing more and more problems as Canada has become a veritable migrant paradise under the Trudeau administration.
In the meantime, drug smuggling from Vancouver and other Canadian cities has also increased spectacularly. According to the FBI, the level of terrorist risk in the United States is currently at a level not seen since the events of September 11, 2001. Recently, another Islamist was arrested for attempting to attack a U.S. military command center in Michigan. At the beginning of the year, several attacks shook the country.
Translated and edited by Alex Kada