EU’s Protectionist Policies Have Been in Place Long Before Trump
17th April 2025
On April 2, Trump proclaimed, “Liberation Day” and added a global baseline tariff of 10%, plus customized so-called “reciprocal tariffs.” Because the 2024 U.S. deficit with the E.U. was 39% of imports, he imposed a “discounted” 20% reciprocal tariff on most E.U. goods not subject to the 25% tariff. After a week, excluding China, Trump suspended reciprocal tariffs for 90 days to facilitate negotiations, and the E.U. delayed its retaliation.
While this may appear to be Trump starting a trade war, in reality it’s Trump ratcheting up a long-simmering war against the United States fought with protectionist trade policies, including by some of our closest allies. Set aside that Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are actually punitive tariffs, that the trade war is depressing global stock and bond markets, raising the specter of recession, and threatening U.S. economic primacy. Those are criticisms largely based on trying to do too much, too quickly. Turning to the disease, Trump is right. We sometimes are treated better by our enemies than by our so-called trade allies. That’s before counting the trillions of dollars America has spent on their defense.
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High tariffs are not Europe’s main offense. Instead, the E.U. deters U.S. competition by requiring American companies to comply on a worldwide basis with its far-left antitrust, censorship, data privacy, and DEI rules; limits government purchasing to products with at least 50% local components and E.U. ownership; and sets standards for non-E.U. companies that vary country-by-country, making it prohibitively expensive to do business in the E.U.