For decades, the United States and Europe have been striving to create a global trading system. Transatlantic cooperation was supposed to be an example of success, but turned into fierce confrontation.
The American edition “Foreign Policy” writes about it.
The media recalled how last month US President Donald Trump returned to threats to impose customs duties on European cars. Last week, he argued that the European Union was “created to take advantage of the United States”.
The EU has already responded to the threats. They are ready to take mirror measures against any new US tariffs.
“The feud is especially damaging given the shared values of the two largest trading powers in the world, which should become a model for the rest of the world”, – writes FP.
“If they cannot find ways to cooperate in trade and economic relations, in defense and in solving common global problems such as pandemics and climate change, then the prospects for the future world order are not clear”.
The confrontation would be more harmless if not for the high stakes, the article says. Thus, a war on two fronts can drain the geopolitical resource of the United States, forcing it to capitulate to China. The transatlantic crisis has already opened the door for Beijing, which is already using massive government subsidies to take over global markets in a wide variety of industries.