Will Europe win the trade war with the US?

Published: March 6th, 2018

Sigmar Gabriel, the head of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed concern that US President Donald Trump could unleash a trade war with Europe. The Minister noted that this, of course, will cause a certain reaction in the EU, as well as harm the States themselves. Gabriel gave an interview to Deutschlandfunk.
Recall that earlier new anti-Russian sanctions did not cause approval in Europe. In particular, German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly criticized the US for its intention to introduce new restrictive measures. And before that America's decision was condemned by the politicians of Austria. They are convinced that the restrictive measures adopted by the US Congress not only contradict international law, but also threaten the energy security of Europe.
At the same time, Germany and Austria came to the conclusion that the only purpose of sanctions is an attempt to bring American liquefied natural gas to the European market by removing energy resources from Russia.

"Pravda.Ru" applied for a comment to Yuri Gromyko, an expert at the Moscow Economic Forum, director of the Schiffers Institute for Advanced Studies, a professor at the British School of Social and Economic Research.

- Is not the war already going on since 2014 - and it seems that the US has already almost won it? And Germany just now began to fear?

- On the one hand, you are right that the war is already on, and on very diverse, many points, but it can acquire a completely different scale. In general, Europe is still a supplier of the main innovative products, innovative technologies.
The signal for the expected war is, among other things, Merkel's meeting with Xi Jinping, where, as the comments say, the issue of creating an investment fund that will be a step towards a free trade zone between Germany and China is being discussed. And Germany says that it will be generally speaking about the European Union. This means that competition for various types of innovative products will begin, including in the digital economy.

In Germany, it is considered that no more indulgence should be expected from the United States, and instead of this, it is worth expecting various types of defensive duties; they will increase at times. We all remember what was a blow, what happened to the German auto industry, what kind of huge fines were paid, due to the fact that the German automakers, as was said, forged the data on the release of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Now we can state that in the spectrum of various industries, Americans are very keen to monitor the possibility of capturing a number of innovative markets. And from this point of view, that war, which is already under way, will acquire a completely different character and a huge scale, since the period of open globalization is ending.

It is no coincidence that one of the agendas of the beginning G20, which Merkel was preparing, was how to convince the population of all the G20 countries that globalization is beneficial to everyone. In fact, it became obvious that to everyone it is unprofitable, it ends. Therefore, at the present time, a completely new layer of relationships and interactions is developing across the entire range of innovative products - from the steel industry to electronics.

- For America, the euro, in principle, is not needed, is not profitable. If the euro disappears, then the users of British pounds and American dollars will be more. Maybe this is also one of the reasons?
- Of course, there is a connection with the currency wars. But the collapse in this sphere is that the so-called transatlantic class begins to fall apart and split. Merkel said this explicitly: abandoning the zone of transatlantic free trade is a blow to the emerging transatlantic class in which Germany was incorporated. And now it turns out that it was "thrown out", and the transatlantic class is exclusively the Anglo-Saxon part. And therefore, there will certainly be a huge exacerbation of currency relations.

The euro will be pushed aside and crushed as a competitive and very unnecessary element within the dollar system and the dollar system crisis. Therefore, Merkel hurries to enlist the support of China. China is characterized by a huge germanophilia - from the point of view of German innovative technologies.

Another signal indicates a global exacerbation. Germany intends to break all sorts of rules. For example, we learned today from the news that Siemens supplied energy turbines to the Crimea in spite of restrictions and sanctions. This means that the game without rules begins, and it, unfortunately, is very dangerous, because, in such conditions, the world becomes even more fragile.

- Everything will explode soon? Patience is running out, and war is the only way for America to stay afloat, and they will not stop?

"It seems to me that a lot will depend on China's position and Russia's actions. It will be bad if everything explodes. It is necessary to prevent it, to keep it.



Source of publication: Press Service
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