Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The EU has directly threatened the USA and all other countries which don’t embrace the “voluntary” Paris Agreement, by insisting ratification of the Paris Agreement be a mandatory clause in all future EU trade deals. But history suggests this is an empty threat.
EU to refuse to sign trade deals with countries that don’t ratify Paris climate change accord
Jon Stone
Monday 12 February 2018 15:00 GMT
Trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom says Paris clause ‘needed in all EU trade agreements’
The European Union will refuse to sign trade deals with countries that do not ratify the Paris climate change agreement and take steps to combat global warming, under a new Brussels policy.
Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU’s trade chief, said a binding reference to the Paris agreement would be “needed in all EU trade agreements” from now on, noting that it had been included in a deal with Japan.
She said upcoming deals with Mexico and the South American trade bloc Mercosur would also include the clause.
European Commission spokesperson confirmed that the new EU policy would also apply to a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK – meaning Britain would risk its trade deal with the bloc were it ever to try to back out of the accord.
The move effectively means the 500-million-citizen bloc is throwing its trade might behind tackling climate change.
But the policy also means a future trade deal with the US as long as Donald Trump is in office is off the table for now. The US President has indicated that he will not sign up to the deal to cut greenhouse emissions and has said he wants to renegotiate it – a plan most other countries, including the UK, have rejected.
…
The EU directly named the USA in a statement a few days ago;
EU Tells Trump: No Paris Climate Deal, No Free Trade
Dave Keating , CONTRIBUTOR
FEB 8, 2018
When Donald Trump took office last year, the assumption was that the transatlantic trade and investment partnership was dead.
The controversial free trade deal between the EU and the U.S., known as TTIP, was already years in development and was a big focus in Europe, particularly with left-wing protesters who said the EU would necessarily have to lower its environmental, health and safety standards to American levels. When Trump was elected on an anti-free-trade platform in 2016, these activists found themselves in the uncomfortable position of being on the same side as the new U.S. president.
…
It is in this context that France’s foreign affairs minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told the French Parliament last week that his country will insist that TTIP never be revived if Trump carries through on his promise to leave the Paris Agreement.
“One of our main demands is that any country who signs a trade agreement with EU should implement the Paris Agreement on the ground,” Lemoyne said. “No Paris Agreement, no trade agreement. The U.S. knows what to expect.”
…
The USA currently has a $184 billion / year trade deficit with the EU.
This isn’t the first time the EU has tried using terms of trade to bully other countries into complying with their green demands. Last time it didn’t work out well for the EU.
EU aircraft carbon emissions tax crashes and burns
Anthony Watts / November 12, 2012
From the BBC comes this bit of good news:
EU suspends aircraft emissions trading rules
The European Union has agreed to suspend its rules that require airlines flying to and from airports in the EU to pay for their carbon emissions.
The rules had been unpopular with countries outside Europe such as the US, China and India.
Climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said she had proposed “stopping the clock for one year”.
…
Read more: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/11/12/aircraft-carbon-emissions-tax-crashes-and-burns/
The EU block likes to pretend they are powerful, but the reality is the EU is falling behind in terms of their importance to global trade. Decades of high taxes and business unfriendly domestic policies have taken their toll.
Like any bully the EU has a track record of rapidly backing down when anyone stands up to them.
The EU is becoming irrelevant in terms of international trade.
This will just make it more so.
and the USA should pull out of NATO:-)))
Indeed. Let them suck eggs.
A1, 666, I have been saying this for a year. Trump should drop NATO and the UN and get together with the Eastern European countries who are being threatened by the West and that are struggling to keep the middle eastern vermin out. This would have to inc. Russia. Do you think for a moment Putin wouldn’t absolutely love it? He has made several overtures to Trump along these lines which for obvious political reasons Trump has had to ignore so far. I am positive this would be well received by those countries, add England, Australia and other like minded nations that value the freedom to vote and all other freedoms. And tell the bloody Euro scum to fuck off.
Wishful thinking I know, 666s idea of threatening to withdraw NATO will do the trick for now, but the strategic opportunities right now are monumental and those other Eastern countries should be looked out for by the US as Merkel and Jupiter are outspoken in their desire to destroy their beautiful unique countries the same way they did their own….now is the time to act. Later will be too late.
Trump also needs to get on and begin the coming investigation into the “Pausebuster Paper” fraud, where Obama knowingly took a fraudulent NOAA paper to the French climate fiasco to prove the existence of GW and deny the pause. I know you guys are across that one. All the Nations who signed this paper are complicit or unwitting perpetuators of the greatest fraud in human history, and if they don’t know…is that a legal defense when the shit hits the fan? And any deal made as am result of a fraud…is fraud. And completely illegal.
Trump has mind-blowing patience and this is a large part of why he is the last man standing always…however, I’m really getting the shits with the whole thing! Who’s with me?
Sorry guys – NATO is a good thing. Remember the Cold War? And how it started? And how it ended not with a bang, but with a whimper – and the whimper was theirs, not ours? As one who would’ve been marched-off to WW3 and certainly not come back, I kinda’ like the result – and it happened that way only because of NATO, and the U.S. being its biggest member { – sleazy double-entendre there, if you wish 😉
This is for Y Knott. NATO is hardly a “good thing.” Not for the US, not for Europe, not for the world. Any organization that is based strictly in war has that same problem if you are seeking peace. Patton said what good is a general without a war? He was right, and I’ll add, what good is a war machine without a war? Where does NATO fit into a war in Afghanistan? It doesn’t. Not a member of NATO was threatened by Afghanistan, and Afghanistan had nothing to do with the dumping of the twin towers, and that was known at before the war. The “cold war,” as it was, was ended when one side ran out of money. The “new cold war” is being started by the existence of NATO and the fact that, well, “what good IS a war machine without a war?” And the bigger the better.
Tom O, did you forget that the hijackers of the planes that killed all those Americans trained in Afghanistan with approval of the Taliban? Did you also forget that the Taliban were harboring Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan? Did you forget that the US asked for the Taliban to hand over Bin Laden and only after they refused did the US prepare to overthrow the Taliban? Did you forget that for NATO an attack on one is an attack on all?
Some people have very convenient loss-of-memory.
[I’ve never been a fan of trying to build up Afghanistan. The rule is, “never get involved in a land war in Asia.” Still, there was ample justification to go to war against the Taliban.]
The NATO that found no way to immediately and radically stop any ISIS oil exports, in the desert, on path offering no protection, on easily identifiable oil trucks with zero risk for confusion (unless ISIS exports milk products in oil trucks)? Very impressive indeed…
I am not planning to visit the mosque that replaces Notre Dame…
Trump administration need simply say the EU trade caviet should apply specifically to ‘meeting’ Paris Targets, which the US would do, rather than to ‘signing up’ to Paris Targets, everyone can sign up to, but very few meet, these targets.
Germany and almost all of the EU would fail their own test.
+ quite a few Chris Dawson.
The Halal of Notre Dame?
Imagine how far you would get by forcing people to swallow a bolus of rat poison before than they can buy a meal from you. The EU does not know a thing about diplomacy or has simply decided to be a bully. But, then they are the liberals in the room and they are sure they know better than anyone what is good for everyone else. It must be fun to operate from such a high tower.
The ever-increasing arrogance of the anti-democratic EU becomes more and more breathtaking as months go by. Driven by the Germans and the French it has shown its dictatorial nature yet again, just as it is trying to do in Brexit.
The EU claims to believe in Free Trade but you shouldn’t take that at face value, what it does is more often than not the opposite. It is a closed shop, protectionist customs union that uses import tarriffs to protect its own industry. Looking at how many years, often 7 or more, it takes to agree a trade deal and then at the detail of a deal it becomes clearer how sclerotic and anti-free trade the EU actually is.
It uses massive tarriff barriers through ‘trade agreements’ to hold back exports from developing countries and particularly those that are developing food exports. With food products the protection of French agriculture at the expense of others is a priority.
The EU functions to serve the interests of German and French industry at the expense of employment and industry in the mediterranean nations. The Euro is kept at a relatively low value (compared to what the D mark would be) by the massive unemployment in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece etc where some 20%-40% of young people are unemployed. But keeping the euro at a relatively low value supports and maintains German manufacturing and industry by making it competitive.
The EU was structured to avoid democratic accountability and challenge but with a very clever fig leaf of retaining national parliaments to make the average voter believe they are still living in a democracy; Laws and policies are made by the unelected in Brussels and must then be put into law in the member states by their own parliament. That way laws appear, to the man in the street, to have been made ‘democratically’.
The founders of the EU believed that the average voter is not competent to make the ‘Right’ decision so this must be left to unelected eurocrats, and is why it is structured as it is. I suspect that the EU is wholly committed to the idea of an undemocratic global government under the guise of ‘Climate Change’ and that the anti-democratic and unaccountable structure of the EU, whilst keeping the appearance of democracy, is a dry run and test bed.
In the UK during the 1990s the Labour government opened the doors to uncontrolled immigration into the UK – and even went out and encouraged it from around the world. It later came out that this was a secret policy decision to use imported foreign cultures and non-integration to break up British communities and remove or destroy the sense of identity of what and who we Brits are. It has worked. I see the same being practiced in the EU by left-wing ex-soviets such as Angela Merkel as millions of people from the middle east and africa are encouraged to come and settle in Europe.
Through all of this the EU has taken itself into a protectionist spiral of decline that is being worsened by ‘Green Policies’ to force energy costs ever higher through the use of unreliable renewables.
By the way, the key reason that we voted for Brexit was to take back sovereignty from the EU and to be able to determine our own future once again rather than having it dictated to us by left-wing control freaks in the self-appointed Eurocracy.
“The ever-increasing arrogance of the anti-democratic EU becomes more and more breathtaking as months go by.”
I think that sums it up perfectly. Arrogance is what we see on display from the EU bureaucrats. Lots of bluster.
“Through all of this the EU has taken itself into a protectionist spiral”
EU is apparently pro-free trade with those blocks that get a competitive advantage by virtue of the Paris accord: they think they can subsidize competitors, allow free trade, and still not destroy its own economy. It’s economic craziness on steroids.
I bet there is an explicit exemption for Airbus in that policy …
+10
and EU airlines
[Snip] ’em !!!!!!
What do they have that we can’t produce on the NA continent??
Really great cheese? Somehow, I’m sure we’ll survive.
Dear DJ Hawkins
Yes, one of the few things they do really well is fromage!
We in BC are catching..up! i wd rather eat our local version of Camembert (for much less!) than support a hostile France whom we rescued in two World Wars. Fuc*k ’em!!
Their wine is over..opinionated and excessively expensive ….. shop “New World!!!”
The science is settled, we are but 1 country NOT in the Accord, surely all those left in the Accord can ensure a planetary temperature drop of 2.0 degrees. It’s not that we are subverting all their grand efforts to get to 2.0 degrees cooler…
We don’t need no Consternation
We don’t need no cheese with holes
French bread leaves me constipated
EU leave the world alone
Hey EU leave the world alone
All in all EU’re just a-nother brick in the wall
All in all EU’re just a-nother brick in the wall
We buy everything from China anyway.
We can make our own wine and cheese. That will leave the EU with all whine and no cheese.
Yeah, how will we manage to exist without sauerkraut.
…. and will BMW, Mercedes and VW not be able to sell cars here? That’s going to be quite a laugh.
VW at least already builds a lot of cars over here.
As expensive as it is to build stuff in the US, it’s even more expensive in the EU.
@Ross King,
Communists and unelected overpaid EU autocrats?
We’ll go medieval on them and start calling our sparkling wine Champagne.
(that’s a /sarc for those of you who… oh nevermind)
In a couple years with the recently imported Iranians leaching off the system, the entire block will be a basket case economy.
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Please can I be there when Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, and BMW are told they will be shipping far fewer cars to the USA or paying tariffs. The EU keeps going down this track and Brexit may be the least of their worries, though I am sure Putin and Russian oligarchs will be happy.
Great idea Edwin!
Put a 300% import duty on all European cars.
Pretty soon we’ll be building much better cars in North America!
We do build much better cars in the US. The German cars are expensive, fragile, stiff, and uncomfortable.
Walter – I meant better cars than WE build now.
Much better than Mercedes and BMW at less than half the price.
Walt,
I’m 5’11” tall and 34 years ago worked for a Mercedes Dealership (for 3 weeks). On several occasions I was to go to Richmond Ca and drive new cars back accross the bridge to San Rafael. The last one I drove was a 190C (fortunately it had a Sun Roof as I had to open it just to keep my head from rubbing against the HeadLiner inside the car) Definitely one of the least comfortable cars I had ever driven
Yes, Allen. They’ll have to compete with Hyundai.
Airbus comes to mind, too.
Airbus absolutely – I mean, who wants to be 30,000 feet up inside something built by the British AND the French?
Remember how these geniuses handled the Germans in the early days of WW2?
Or their interminable trench warfare slaughter in WW1?
Every time I flush the toilet in an Airbus, I expect to be sucked down to freefall. 🙂
@ ALLAN MACRAE: You forget that the Allies could not have won WW2 if the French hadn’t heroically surrendered ‘en-masse’ in order to slow down the German advance and increase their administration costs
/sarc
The British and French built Concorde!
The Americans turned up late to WW2, waiting on the sidelines until everyone had kicked 10 bells out of each other for several years.
And if you could drive a sponge, it would probably be more robust, be more exciting to drive, and handle better than an American car!
From a Pro-Brexiteer who hates the EU! 🙂
Always stand up an brace yourself before flushing at 40,000 ft. That is a more sensible application of the precautionary principle than some we see.
Adam, that’s because they are made for driving on the wrong side of the road. (Nyuk,nyuk,nyuk.)
Adam – when is the last time you drove a North American Car? They are much improved in terms of handling.
However, I do mourn the demise of the Great North American Land Yachts with their 8-litre V-8 engines and three-speed syncro-mush transmissions, They accelerated like a bat-out-of hell in a straight line, but then kept going straight, even into the corners. 🙂
It’s good that you are “a Pro-Brexiteer who hates the EU”. Britain(and its allies) did not win the war so they could surrender the peace.
Re the Americans showing up late for WW2 – better late than never. Realistically , we probably would have lost without them, and the royal family would have had to change their name from Windsor back to Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
The EU has nothing to ‘trade’ … they exiled their industry to China, impoverished their member states and now want to reduce the rest of the developed world to their ‘junk bond’ status.
And they’ve hobbled their remaining industries with rising power and compliance costs. The only thing I’ve bought from Europe in the past few years is wine, and that’s easily substituted from elsewhere.
we in OZ have plenty of better wine the the french stuff at a fraction of the price.
When Charles de Gaulle got kicked out of Canada for shouting “Vive le Quebec Libre”, I stopped drinking ~all French wines. That pompous ingrate horse’s ass owed his job AND his country to our boys who fought and died in WW1 and WW2. Then he came here and insulted their memory with his pandering to separatists?
Some acts are unforgiven – that is one of them.
I have a great-uncle buried in France, killed in action in the last weeks of WW1, and an uncle who was the only surviving officer of the Essex Scottish Regiment at Dieppe in WW2.
I have friends who are French, but I’ll be damned to hell if I ever buy anything made in France.
“michael mills February 12, 2018 at 8:13 pm”
And a lot of the wine from those vines is from vines imported from the EU and France 200 years ago.
And don’t forget how California whines. Oh, wait…
The argument is irrelevant. By the time all this could be worked out and the necessary laws/treaties passed it may be too late for most of Europe. The no-go zones will merge and grow even faster.
I never understood, what is a “trade deal”? Is that a discount?
I have the same question. So, we can’t trade unless our governments say so?
It is an agreement between governments regarding the amount of import one is willing to accept in exchange for mutual export
free trade doesn’t need government control …
Kaiser,
You hit the nail on the head!
Free trade simply means a “negotiated agreement on the amount of government interference on trade”.
Cheers
Roger
Free trade is code for highly regulated trade and a free trade deal is such an arrangement made in complete secrecy and overseen by the unelected commissars of the EU, UN, globalist banking cabal and faceless bureaucrats etc.
If you trust these people to have your interests at heart under these insane circumstances you should call a psychiatrist and he will relieve you of what cash you have left.
Sick sad world.
Canada has a free trade deal with the EU, and part of the deal is that Canada must have a Carbon tax in place. Canada is now in the process of bowing to the EU’s demand by introducing a national carbon tax this year.
If NAFTA is in place once again, could the EU get their products into the USA through Canada?
The trade deals that I am familiar with have provisions limiting transhipments.
The EU is an empty suit. How the people of Europe allowed non elected bureaucrats to take over their governments is a lesson in subversion and ignorance. The chances of them enforcing trade sanctions over the Paris Agreement with other countries, especially the US, is laughable.
markl
Most of the EU was never really a fully functioning democracy. This makes it easy for non elected bureaucrats to continue to run the place.
If they are basing trade agreements on Paris Accord Adherence then the EU has morphed from separate monarchies through a bastardized form of democracy and into a full blown theocracy
“….Most of the EU was never really a fully functioning democracy…..” ? Neither is/was the US. No? But they still have/had elections with actual choices.
Markl, was “the crook or the clown” much of a real choice for America?
Hear, here!
I wouldn’t only stand up to them but would make sure that at least for a time they were forced to feel the pain of making their threats by making them keep their word for a time. Talking to Bullies doesn’t work to stop the aggression just as noted in the article. . Punitive action does. No threats, nor promises, no bargains or negotiations, just make them live for a time by their words so that the message is clear that the US won’t stand for empty threats. As things are going right now with deregulation and the weakening of the dollar things are not looking that great for them over the long haul.
Who needs a trade deal with the EU? they have nothing unique.
I’m afraid we have awoken a sleeping giant. (Paraphrasing Tojo? following Pearl Harbour).
I think the pipsqueak EU had best not throw their weight around with America!
WWI, WWII, and now the EU. The tactics have changed, but the German end-game remains the same.
+++rh
It’s just so much fun to be dominated by Germany in the EU, that the UK is moving quietly and quickly into a EU Common Defense Union, thus transferring its military funding, intelligence and decisions to that body as well.
The Remainers forgot to mention this development in EU membership when the referendum to leave the EU was held.
rh
Yes, they just cannot stop themselves from temporarily invading Belgium, France et al., and failing to invade the UK and Russia. It must be a self-flagellation thing.
Curly (Jerry) Howard (Horowitz) said it right, “If at first you don’t succeed, keep on suckin’ ’till you do succeed.”
Does the EU really believe the world can’t live without European products? They tried this stunt once before with the airline industry … and the EU found it had to back down because of adverse repercussions it would have faced.
The EU has 155% of the USA’s 325M population and 97% of the USA’s $18,1T GDP (said another way, the average EU GDP/person is 65% of the USA). EU makes a lot of stuff (cars, Pharma), but with a few exceptions, the EU doesn’t invent stuff.
If the EU was stupid enough (it could be…) to cut itself off from new & cutting edge technology, it would quickly slide towards the Greek economic end of the spectrum.
The good news is this would soon be cheaper for American tourists, and lots of places might reclaim their wonderful bucolic pasts.
…and I forgot to mention, exactly NONE of the EU countries could defend themselves in a military conflict…with out NATO.
Dont blame only the Germans The French have also had a big hand in this blackmail.
You forget Britain who unfortunately is still a EU member until we leave the sinking ship in March 2019, and we have nuclear weapons. Have a nice day y’all.
Javert Chip February 12, 2018 at 4:41 pm: US is 16th by Nobel prizes per capita which suggests that the old world is not quite finished yet even if we seem to be trying to commit suicide at the moment. A few countries from the list, prizes per 10 million population. Sweden 30.2, Austria 24.0, Denmark 22.5, UK 19.9, Ireland 14.7, Germany 13.0, Netherlands 11.7, USA 11.3.
Nigel
The comment was about inventions, not Nobel prizes.
But if we must: Nobel prizes are awarded by politicians. One went to Obama for…um…nobody can quite explain why.
There was a time when the best engineers and chemists in the world were European.
About 100 years ago.
I would accept in the name of preventing global warming that the USA could put a 100% tariff on European cars which are largely gas guzzling luxury cars. More expensive cars will encourage more commuting and using smaller more efficient vehicles.
Maybe that is what the EU wants – to destroy their industry to save us all from AGW.
This must just be more empty stupid-talk from the desperate Parisites. The EU cannot afford this loss and it is already heading down the toilet economically, politically and culturally.
Some recent – to 2016 – trade stats here:
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2006/september/tradoc_113465.pdf
Extreme Hiatus …..I just LOVE your “Parisites”!!!!!!! Bon mot!!
This whole AGW hoax unfortunately demonstrates again that everything is connected to everything else.
I know. As the US oil production keeps ramping up the EU can keep sourcing their oil, along with making protection payments, to Vladimir Putin and/or those fun loving Ayatollahs in Iran.
Making an empty threat is rather stupid. I’m certain we sell far less Ford F150s and Dodge Rams in the EU than they sell Mercedes, BMWs, Maseratis and Ferraris in the US. Go ahead EU, have at it!
Hold on…my BMW540i is made in Munich…
My Honda Accord, built in Central Ohio, is a far better automobile, and cost less than half of what your BMW cost.
We don’t define value the same way (I’m definitely not in the “get from A to B cost-effectively” camp); Honda Accord = just not my cup of tea.
People value & pay for different things, markets exist to satisfy desires, hopefully at a profit.
Neither you or I really cares what the other thinks about our respective cars. I make buying decisions based on what i’d love to drive. I don’t spend time denigrating the rest.
I’m sure a Honda Accord is a perfectly serviceable car.
They stop, they go. The rest is ego.
Nashville
Given a choice between your rather passionless existence, and my BMW – gimme a fast car!.
Corvette. Or Tesla S. Or several others…
All X class BMW’s are made in the US.
My Prado isn’t fast, but it goes places that neither the BMW or Accord can go. Horses for courses.
How would the EU react, if the various European car makers built factories in the US?
a drama cow!….like nothing we’re ever seen…but that is exactly what would happen
they already have …
More like if VWAG, BMW and Porsche move? Because all three have North American assembly plants. Same with Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan and even Kia.
My BMW was constructed in South Africa. Ace car too.
“philincalifornia February 12, 2018 at 9:58 pm”
Assembled from kits.
This is actually how their global warming CO2 inititive works. They tax companies for CO2, and also give nice government credits for cutting CO2. Nothing like shutting down a factory to cut CO2 and get credits, but the company still needs to build a product. What to do? Hmm, I know, I will build the same factory in China or India, and I will get my credits, and the CO2 issue is then their problem, and conveniently they don’t have caps!
“How would the EU react, if the various European car makers built factories in the US?”
The largest BMW factory in the World is in South Carolina.
Both the Atlantic and Pacific trade deals under the previous administration had backdoor ratification of the Paris Accord, along with the establishment of an “International Tribunal” for enforcement. (This had anti-US bias written all over it, but that is another story.) Those backdoors, which had nothing to do with trade were a big consideration for the current administration to scuttle the deals.
Interesting that the author reminds us of the Airline Carbon Tax. The EU thought they could ram it down our throats, even threatening to suspend landing rights to US carriers. The US carriers said NO, and plans were made to block all EU carriers from the US in retaliation, if needed. Within days, the EU panicked and crumpled like yesterdays newspaper.
It looks like they need a refresher lesson.
French and Germans are renowned for blackmail.
Hell, they can’t even get the emissions controls right on many of the cars they build in Germany
“No Paris Agreement, no trade agreement.”
Sounds good to me.
Exactly. Trump must be laughing at this ‘threat’.
Pretty much. He’s already after them for the trade imbalance. What an enormous gulf lies between government and business! Trump was elected to redress that. Thank God for continental drift…
Obama interfered with the UK Brexit vote by saying that if Britain voted to leave the EU, they would be at the end of the line with US trade and other considerations.
Did this move by the EU cement the reality that a non Brexit UK goes to the FRONT of the line?.
The “Art of the Deal”.
Yes, George, I noted that also…
They really think they can out-negotiate The Donald? LOL.
Maybe they haven’t read Art of The Deal yet?
Bub
Yes, Obama’s intervention made a major contribution to swinging the vote in favour of Brexit so that’s one thing to thank him for at least.
EU should only accept tourism that arrives on sail boats, bicycles, or foot….and should only mfg and export the same way…I’ve worked there, their environmental laws are lax compared to the US…dey talk the talk but don’t walk the walk
EU has ironclad rules, which all states except France and Germany have to adhere to.
That pretty much sums the EU up nicely.
They need us more than we need them. They know this. It’s a bluff. Against somebody that holds all the cards and has demonstrated as much repeatedly. At their own peril, I suppose.
Bluffing President Trump might back-fire – biggly.
Trump is a despicable human being but his election triumph just may save the world from the global warming hoax
… yet another attempt to talk people into allowing OTHER countries to tell THIS country (the USA) how to go about its business.
The “U” in “bully” stands for “European UNION”. We may now spell it “beully”.
The bEUlly may a blEUdy nose.
With Headquarters in the “Bullymont” building (Actually, it’s called the Berlaymont Building)
Yep. Like flooding the 1000 year old food basket of the Somerset Levels, mandating vacuum cleaners that don’t work. The list is long.
They (mainly France) conned the Brits years ago by selling them “Golden Delicious” apples aka surplus pig food. Clever …. but victims eventually learn.
Anyway, what happens if a country signs the trade agreement then pulls out of the Parisite nonsense?
Pretty funny. The US has no trade agreement with the EU. This is why BMW decided to build their cars destined to be imported into the EU in Mexico, which does have a free trade (no tariff) agreement with the EU.
Meanwhile, the New Left tries to blame HRC’s presidential loss on covert Russian influence. They completely forget that Obama publicly threatened the British voters if they voted for Brexit.
facts seem to be easily forgotten….like Clinton blowing up the Chinese embassy
Do we actually NEED anything from Europe here in North America? I’m sure we could get along fine without trading with them. Unfortunately here in Canada, we have JT just standing there, a lone voice in the wilderness, talking to himself.
JUstin Trudeau, the ultimate Narcissist, stands in front of one of his innumerable mirrors (in Sophie Gregoire’s remodelled Prime Ministerial Residence) so He can practise every utterance, talking to himself, between wetdream..land in bed and getting out the door every morning. (That’s when he is not holidaying at the Canadian Taxpayers’ expense for transport and security, and the Aga Khan’s hospitality, for which there is Ethical Criticism, given that Canada subscribes to AK’s Foundations via the PM’s Office)
Yes!
o Gina Lollobrigida (or more current model)
o prosciutto di parma
o white burgundies
o my aforementioned BWM 540i and a shot at the autobahn
That about sums it up.
The EU sells their Airbus to Middle eastern airlines.
The Gulf States depend on oil and gas.
Will the EU stop selling Airbus to the Emirates to save our planet?
If they were to do this, Boeing’s Dreamliner would replace them immediately.
Not only that, there are regular flights to these countries. Will they sign up for a CO2 tax?
I suspect this is more of a veiled threat to other countries’ officials, especially EU countries, that they better stick with the Paris “accord”, or there might be serious repercussions . .
An agreement historically has a benefit to both parties.
If party A seeks a condition that B rejects, then A loses the benefit it had hoped to obtain.
It is as simple as that.
Do not sign an agreement that has objectionable clauses. Geoff.
Oh, fore Pete’s sake, they don’t like Trump’s independence?
Well, then, let them eat my dust.
The old totalitarian motivation technique – “You are strongly encouraged to agree to this voluntarily. If not we will force you.”
The USA has bilateral agreements with EU members (e.g. Ireland). I doubt this will change that reality.
The USA can’t have bilateral agreements with any EU nation as that is not permitted by the Common Commercial Policy. It can only have agreements with the EU. And it does.
The EU common market means that every member must agree on every classification and every other tax and regulatory issues, including what is a night cloth vs. what is a pyjama (not making this up: one is designed to be worn at night mostly and the other mostly at night, so something).
Some people claimed that member states cannot begin even informal negotiations with other countries what they would do after leaving the bloc which of course has no basis in law.
Hmm, we stop buying European goods and instead produce them here… Hmm…
OK.
It seems pretty clear that the threat is all about hard economics, with enviro-piety as window dressing.
The EU’s energy policy is grounded in an AGW fantasy and it has deployed wind and solar installations that have put it at a serious manufacturing disadvantage.
The EU’s threats are an attempt to force other states to hobble their economies the way the EU has hobbled its own.
A Clinton administration would have played along, citing the same pious save-the-world reasons.
With DT as president, the US says good luck EU and goes full bore to manufacturing efficiency and energy independence.
The result will almost certainly be that third-party countries will fall all over themselves trading for cheaper but quality US goods, while the EU economy becomes internally focused and ever more moribund. They’re likely to impose tariffs on US goods. They’ll call it a carbon penalty, or something.
China will take polemical advantage of EU tariffs, saying that they are proof that the US is secretly subsidizing manufacture or dumping its goods.
And so it goes in our brave new world. The US saved Europe from German Nazism and China from Japanese Yamatoist imperialism. And today, they both have their knives out for the US. The EU’s knife is self-dulled, though, from them cutting their own throats.
Yes. The EU has screwed its economy with the ‘Global Warming’ nonsense, and, to remain at all relevant, it now has no choice but to convince the rest of the world to screw their economies, too.
I’m not so sure Japan’s knife is all that sharp these days, either…
Doesn’t the EU have laws against “fad science” that has no proven factual basis?
The EU was established to negate Germany’s economic competitive advantage and punish Germany for its economic success.
Under the EU, Germany, and, to lesser extent the UK, have always been forced to bail out the other under-performing EU economies (especially Greece), which have had devastating effects to the German and UK economies. The Germans and Brits are getting sick and tired of being screwed by this EU monstrosity, and the UK is desperately trying to get out of the EU, and Germany will soon follow.
Europeans are especially disgusted by the EU-orchestrated Middle East refugee invasion, which has caused irreparable damage to their cultures and economies; a form of socio-economic suicide.
The blowback against the EU for its socio-economic devastation caused by: 1) the failed CAGW hypothesis, and 2) the Middle-East refugee invasion will be the undoing of the EU…
It’s too bad it took so long for Europeans to finally realize EU’s incompetence and destructive Leftist socio-economic policies.
Oh, well, better late than never…
EU is not a big enough dog to go it alone. Brussels, the wanna-be bully.
The EU (511M people) is definitely big enough, but Europe only plays small-ball. These people have spent the last 1,000 years invading, looting, enslaving, and killing each other, or worse. They aren’t about to quit now.
Napoleon killed more Frenchmen than any other nation…and those were considered the GREAT years.
Do they even have habeas corpus on the Continent right now?
Most large EU countries (Germany, Spain, Italy, France) have it in their constitutions (England since the 1215 Magna Carta); no idea how strongly it’s actually enforced. Greece is another kettle of fish.
I am an American observer, but this European Court of Justice does appear to have some problems associated with it. For example, the European Arrest Warrant —
The great years in france was La Belle Epoque at the beginning of the 19th century. Then WW1 and WW2 brought the communists to power. The rest is history. My friends always vote for the wrong person. My friends always believe everything they see, hear or read in the press. EG trumps wife is a prostitute. When I voted Le Pen they al but ostracised me. Literally screaming at me. When I said Trump will be the greatest president, well, that was when the prostitute, misogyny, madness came out. Everything I has seen in the French and international MSM
These Euroc-rats now are trying to establish a EU military force. Next try will be the “EU” atom bomb. Mental squirts they are.
“These Euroc-rats now are trying to establish a EU military force.”
I suspect it’s more that every EU nation is trying to cut its (already minimal) military spending by offloading their costs onto the others. Freeloading is the EU way.
Without an Air Force, Army or Navy to slaughter all those hated “foreigners” hated by the EU Nazi Empire To Be, not the illegal migrants but the Americans — The Yanks, the empire is not to be.
Baseless and empty threats.
The most important element in the Brexit is to Rob the EU Nazi State of nuclear weapons, the UK nuclear weapons!
Ha ha
They still got the French ones. But if these weapons are as reliable as French technology can be, so it’s all-clear.
NN
If that worries you then try this. I’ve had to do with two workshop vices from India. Which put a whole new worrying context on an Indian atomic bomb.
The US does not need the EU, or the UN, The EU does need the US for technology and defence. Trump will know how this deal is structured and deal with it accordingly. The EU symbol with the Hammer and Sickel in the centre is very apt. France and Germany drive the EU and are acting like old-time fascists.
Be careful what you ask for.
Elites (I hate that term) don’t slide into communism or socialism because they believe the utopian crap, they go into it with eyes wide open expecting that THEY will be among the chosen few to lead & shear the sheep (have you ever seen a poor dictator? Even in Haiti?).
I hate ELITES as well. I’ve been trying to think of a more appropriate, repeatable word. No luck yet
Well said Javert:
“Elites don’t slide into communism or socialism because they believe the utopian crap, they go into it with eyes wide open expecting that THEY will be among the chosen few to lead and shear the sheep.”
They also forget that as leaders of the “revolution” they are the only ones left who could organise a counter revolution and so will among the first purged by the new order.
Only professional bureaucrats have the cynicism and temerity in requiring adherence to a pact that no member has any real intention of complying with. Words become meaningless, just so much bullshit bingo that passes the form over substance test.
The agents behind the scenes of these charades should be identified by name.
They are megalomaniac bureaucrats. They actually believe that the world will dance when they fart.
They just made President Trumps day . What’s next mandatory pronouns ?
Well at least Britain will benefit . French politicians are going to have their own “deplorables ” response soon.
Will miss the Gouda cheese and … well nothing from France till they ditch their socialist regime .
I think Norwegian Jarlsberg will still be available (much better IMO) 🙂
(Norway is not an EU member yet).
…or maybe Venezuelan Beaver Cheese….? 🙂
Next, the Kommissars will declare war.
The EU are nothing but jailers and bum boys for the UN That’s why the people of the UK wanted out.
I’d be interested to know what the lawyers think of such threats with respect to the agreements within the WTO (World Trade Organization). Many bureaucrats within the European Commission have previously proposed legislation, or made sabre-rattling noises, that contradict pre-existing laws and agreements.
I guess they’re not the first politicians to do their thinking out loud or run stupid ideas up the flag pole to see if anybody will salute them, but at least many ‘normal’ Western politicians are constrained by the fact of needing to seek election on the basis of their proposals.
There is ONE free printed journal in France (Valeurs Actuelles) and zero TV channels.
How hard is it for the globalist “center” (Macron) to get elected?
We in Europe do not like the US being a BULLY and throwing its economic and diplomatic power in support of its “intellectual property” laws (notably some kinds of patents and copyright laws giving almost unlimited powers to “owners”).
So we decided to become to strong block to be a BIGGER bully!
Dream on ………. the EUSSR is nearing the end of its life.
On the copyright issue I would have to agree with you US laws is too restrictive, as they give near perpetual protection. On patents not so much, the biggest difference is most of Europe are on a “First to file” basis where the US is “First to conceive” basis.
Some patents are also ridiculous, like the design patents (iPhone rectangular stuff).
And copyright issues are just duration issues, there is also the ridiculous idea of protecting interfaces/API as in Oracle vs. Google nonsense.
The problem is that you have 27 little Hitlers all trying to show how hard they work. They are in work not because of their ability but because they come from some insignificant little sh hole somewhere in the wastes of communist Europe. They are supported by thousands of little people all paid significant amouts of money to keep quiet and keep their heads down or the 100.000€ /an pension will be stopped.
This is a nasty soviet socialist regime hell bent on destroying itself but not before they have creamed off sufficient money for themselves. Yuk
To our cousins in the US of A….
Don’t worry about loss of EU cheeses – we in the UK (soon to be ex-EU) make 700 varieties…
We also have around 400 vineyards (Oh – didn’t the French tell you that..??)
We also manufacture Toyotas, Nissans and Hondas – not to mention that brilliant British success story – Jaguar Land Rover….
So – don’t panic – we’re on your side…..
And Marmte. Don’t forget the Marmite 🙂
Vegemite for the antipodeans
Vegemite is to Marmite as Mars is to Venus. Yes, they are both planets, but…..
Regarding cheese: what about som fromage de la belle Norvege: https://gff.co.uk/norwegian-blue-cheese-named-world-champion/
Yes, pining for the day the EU has ceased to be.
English sparkling wines have regularly Beaten French Champagne in blind tastings over recent years and they are getting better year on year – they are first choice of HM Queen Elizabeth and served at state banquets.
Stoppit – you’re going to add credence to this global warming malarkey !!!
Is that the reason you became cheesed off with the EU?
Our sock-boy (sockpuppet) Prime Minister just tried this with the US. Didn’t get Canada very far.
Oh, I don’t know. I suspect it will be one of the justifications Trump uses to cut Canada out of NAFTA.
Which is probably the best thing that could happen to Canada right now. When it’s unable to survive as one of America’s offshore factories, Canadians will have to start electing real leaders, not pantywaists like Trudeau.
For decades after WWII, the second biggest economy in the world, after the U.S. economy, was the U.S. economy in Europe – the result of the Marshall Plan. But the U.S. interests were not very conspicuous or well-known. Have the U.S. interests in Europe somehow evaporated? How much of the European economy is still owned or controlled by American interests? Europe’s total GDP is less than 85% of U.S. GDP.
Ok no trade deal so WTO it is, meaning ‘Paris’ and the nonsense of ‘tackling climate change’ can both jog right on. Sorted.
Yes, WTO is UK’s best bet. I’m praying that May continues to cock it up with Barnier’s help and there is no deal and no transition.
No deal, no transition, shortly followed by no UK economy. Nobody can be certain as to the damage a no deal exit would cause as it has never been tried before. It is a guess at how far the economy falls before it bottoms out. Job losses will be huge – car industry gone, aerospace gone, petrochemicals gone, pharmaceuticals gone, the list is endless. Anyone who thinks the WTO rules – a very basic set of rules to be included in trade deals – is viable should ask themselves why no country in the world does what you propose and wonder just why that might be.
CheshireRed is also one of my favorite English cheeses.
This seems to be just more of the same from EU and can probably be ignored as most EU countries do with the dafter EU regulations that UK so slavishly follows. Trade deals of course are the opposite of free trade and all to do with state control. People will continue to trade with each other in most cases whatever theirgovernments decree.
http://www.economistsforfreetrade.com/News/brexit-could-boost-uk-economy-by-135-billion-say-top-economists/
Except when trade barriers stop them, as will happen to the UK once it becomes a ‘third country’.
Not sure if post comment is not working for me ……..
I suspect the major effect of this will be another US news cycle with the theme: “Trump is a disaster”. Wait a few days and see if it emerges on MSM and late night talk shows.
We, as a country, fart in EU’s general direction.
Maybe that will cause some actual climate change!
Nice post Anthony. Nothing like some red meat for Europhobes and isolationists
Typical remoaner BS. EU is not Europe. Your comment makes no sense. Were Foot, Benn, Shore, Castle and even Corbyn ‘Europhobes and isolationists’ in 1975?
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/a-lesson-from-the-1975-referendum/
“remoaner”? make sense?
Definition please.
Nothing like some red meat for Europhobes and isolationists
Anth*ny is simply reporting what’s in the public news. Unknown if it’s serious or just virtue-signaling, but it is insulting to suggest free-trade should be tied to some hair-brained scheme of controlling the weather.
Mirror all such actions with their own medicine. There goes the French wine.
Australia and New Zealand will be beneficiaries, Asia Pacific Region economic growth area.
NATO is becoming an unworkable defense agreement in practice.
Lie.
Threatening existing trade treaties would be dropped, THAT would be serious business, serious commitment to Paris Agreement (whatever you think of this one). But they don’t.
They only threaten “future” treaties, that is, TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership). This one is under “pause” forever, and always will, as too many Europeans just hate Trade, USA (not just Trump, this TTIP was already massively protested under Obama) and want NO trade with it.
So they just have rather use some petty excuse putting the blame on Trump, instead of admitting they just cannot reach agreement between themselves.
Options, for any country in the world:
1. Unilaterally declare your country to be free trade and thus can import stuff from anywhere in the world without import duty of any kind. Result is your citizens and businesses can choose the best/cheapest/best value product,commodity, etc of anything and therefore have MORE money left over for other things, research,better standard of living.
2. Join some group such as WTO and agree to abide by their rules whatever they are with probably very little chance of changing said rules as you will have small % voting power.
3. Negotiate mutually agreeable trade deals with individual countries and/or blocks like EU. These will ALWAYS involve a degree of protectionism somewhere typically one sided.
Morally and intellectually option 1. seems to shine out above all else. The more countries that go down this route the better it is and eventually you may get a snowball effect.
Terminate NAFTA if any member remains a signor in the Paris Climate Agreement.
The article from the EU by Dave Keating said that Trump was elected on an anti-free trade platform. Where the h-ll is that in the 2016 Republican platform? The only thing I saw was a section on having a “winning” free trade policy and renegotiating trade agreements to provide more favorable terms for the United States.
How is that different than any other nation’s trade policy? Another out-and-out lie by the EU.
There may be a micron of truth in their nonsense. The union rank and file did not show up at the polls for Hillary in the industrial/motor vehicle states that Hillary didn’t bother to visit a single time and Trump mentioned NAFTA a few times. Okay, we’ll compromise and give them half a micron of truth which is about all they ever deserve in Le Muddville.
What was Hillary going to tell them anyway?
“Your jobs are soon gone. They belong in China. There is nothing I can do about it (there is nothing I want to do about it anyway). You can still wash dishes, at least until immigrants replace you. You care about your jobs and about your backward thinking industry which proves that you are Luddites but you are uneducated so you probably don’t know what a Luddite is. If you were forward thinkers you would make solar panels which are made in China anyway because keeping an industrial job in a Western country is backward thinking.
In the long run our great liberal intellectuals have a plan to choose the President with the popular vote in order to make your vote count less which would be better for you because liberal elites are forward thinkers so they know that your backward industry is doomed and solar and wind is the future. My liberal buddies know about energy use and climate because they have law degrees. You don’t so don’t even bother.
Remember, anyone who doesn’t vote for me is sexist. You must be racist too; those of you who voted for Barack Obama did so by accident. They are still racist.
You are so backward, you probably don’t understand why I am most qualified. Only my liberal buddies do.”
As the Israelis just paraphrased today…. ‘This is not the time to bark, this is the time to bite.’
So what became of the carbon tax push on American airlines flying to or over any of the EU?
Asia Pacific Region is the economic growth area now and the UK has been seeking realignment with Commonwealth of Nations members, the US of course has influence in the region.
Meanwhile EU member countries economies are being crushed by the AGW hoax and related agendas.
From the article: “When Trump was elected on an anti-free-trade platform in 2016”
Trump was elected on a FAIR-trade platform. Trump is not against free trade, he just wants the trade to be fair to the United States. Running huge trade deficits with other nations is not fair to the United States.
Its high time the EU in Brussels is dismantled. It was shoved down the throats of the people and we need to get rid of them asap.
EU may be dismantling itself. The same people who explained that as a matter of principes they do not intervene in states internal politics (even when an allegedly “illegal” referendum is suppressed with extremely excessive violence) decided to punish Poland for the extreme anti democratic “crime” of … democratically choosing its own judges, as many other democratic nations have always done.
Removing Poland’s voting rights would probably make very few practical difference as the France-Germany block tends to pre-decide most decisions (in a typically monopolistic way, funny for a block that gives such importance to anti monopoly issues), but as a symbolic point, it’s devastating. The EU national story (the EU wants to be a nation, like the US) is predicated on the idea it’s free, peaceful alliance of democratic nations, not an imperialistic bully. (At least not with its own members, bullying ex-Yugoslavia countries seems OK.)
I have always felt that EU is so out of touch with most humble people, so inconsistent in its narrations, so inept in it’s propaganda, it may be practically undone by the time brexit is implemented.
My oh my next election Germany outs the globalists and the Paris Pledge deflates like a popped
birthday balloon . The conferences will however continue .
Just another snippet – which country in the EU do you think breaks the most EU rules..?
Yep – its Germany….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_trading_partners_of_the_European_Union
I did not know the EU is on a suicidal mission. In 2015 the US was its No 1 trading partner, with $370 billion exports and $247 billion imports (in 2016 it was $416 billion vs. $270 billion). So sure, it is a bad deal, the EU (who else?) is expected to put an end to it ASAP.
The entire issue is utterly ridiculous.
The EU looks more and more like a suicide pact.
The EU has become a toothless construct. High energy prices, high transportation costs, endless red tape and regulations have become a mill stone around the neck of trade and business. As a result the EU is no longer competative. The other aspect is import taxes. The consumer is not served by the EU and they very well know it. The time for this house of cards has come.
Anyone got a picture of the US fag with dead children bleeding on it while NRA gives millions to to Republicans who are prepared to sell their souls for the cash ?
Don’t like it eh ? Enraged? Ready to respond with obscenities?
Maybe that how you should feel when you misuse the flags of other nations and communities to make a sick jokes with the flag of the EU.
If you can’t take it, don’t dish it out.
The NRA is a malignant cancerr. Every mass shooting and the subsequent inaction is a reminder of that.
Bite. Nose. Spite. Face.