re: EU plans concessions for Trump after reciprocal tariffs hit.

GROK for context.

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As of the most recent data available in 2024, the trade imbalance in goods between the United States and the European Union shows a significant deficit for the U.S. Specifically, U.S. goods exports to the EU totaled $370.2 billion, while U.S. goods imports from the EU amounted to $605.8 billion. This results in a U.S. goods trade deficit with the EU of $235.6 billion for the year 2024. This deficit increased by 12.9% ($26.9 billion) compared to 2023, driven by a modest rise in exports (up 0.7% or $2.6 billion) and a more substantial increase in imports (up 5.1% or $29.4 billion).

It’s worth noting that this figure reflects only trade in goods. When considering services, the U.S. typically runs a surplus with the EU, which offsets part of the goods deficit. However, comprehensive 2024 services trade data isn’t fully detailed here, though earlier years (e.g., 2023) suggest a U.S. services surplus of around $104 billion. Combining goods and services would reduce the overall trade imbalance, but the goods deficit remains the dominant factor in the bilateral trade relationship.

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As of the most recent data available in 2024, the trade imbalance in goods between the United States and the European Union shows a significant deficit for the U.S. Specifically, U.S. goods exports to the EU totaled $370.2 billion, while U.S. goods imports from the EU amounted to $605.8 billion. This results in a U.S. goods trade deficit with the EU of $235.6 billion for the year 2024. This deficit increased by 12.9% ($26.9 billion) compared to 2023, driven by a modest rise in exports (up 0.7% or $2.6 billion) and a more substantial increase in imports (up 5.1% or $29.4 billion).

It’s worth noting that this figure reflects only trade in goods. When considering services, the U.S. typically runs a surplus with the EU, which offsets part of the goods deficit. However, comprehensive 2024 services trade data isn’t fully detailed here, though earlier years (e.g., 2023) suggest a U.S. services surplus of around $104 billion. Combining goods and services would reduce the overall trade imbalance, but the goods deficit remains the dominant factor in the bilateral trade relationship.

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If anyone doesn't understand, the EU has a population of about 450 million people, compared to roughly 340 million in the US. So you have 340 million importing 600 billion from the EU, but the EU's 450 million people only import 370 billion from the US. One of the main reasons for that are protectionist tariffs imposed by the EU on US goods being imported.

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Are there better sources reporting this? Concessions in what manner?

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Of course there aren't, imagine anyone on this board using a legitimate source lmao.

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If anyone doesn't understand, the EU has a population of about 450 million people, compared to roughly 340 million in the US. So you have 340 million importing 600 billion from the EU, but the EU's 450 million people only import 370 billion from the US. One of the main reasons for that are protectionist tariffs imposed by the EU on US goods being imported.

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While somewhat true, it doesn't work out the same when your comparative entity is made up of 27 different countries, all of whom have different and mostly more stringent laws governing labor.

They're generally much more committed to collectivism than we are. Their labor generally has more government protections than ours, which increases the cost of their production. Because they are philosophically committed to the collectivism, they aren't going to drop that in order to compete, what they are going to do is impose artificial barriers to trade in order to prioritize their producers in the context of their collectivist environment).

I'm not saying I agree with them, but if you want to understand them, you have to understand what they are prioritizing.

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Producers create jobs. We need good jobs.

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It's just math.

In our situation with our population and economy the math doesn't work out that way. If the auto tariffs thing happens and lasts any length of time, you will see that.

I keep referring people back to 2018 and 2019. We already know that the tariffs imposed then cost a net loss of American jobs. According to the tax foundation, 142,000, to be exact.

Why will these tariffs cause the opposite outcome?

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We need to rely less on other countries as well.

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We don't need tariffs to accomplish that goal.

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According to the tax foundation, 142,000, to be exact.

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right, 142,000 exactly in a 100+ million job market, exactly for that reason with everything else that goes on in an economy.

If you were a shite manager and you tanked your company, would you try to blame it on something else?

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They're generally much more committed to collectivism than we are

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And they use tariffs to make us pay for their collectivism because they honestly can't afford their own collectivism ideas by themselves. It's just like they use us for their military defense because they can't really afford to defend themselves either. It's about time the United States stop paying for other people's shite

He should make them pay us back for all the tariffs they've collected the last 50 years. At least cancel any of our debts they hold.

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it’s the fact that we have massive trade deficits with almost every trade partner.

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But we don't.

See above.

We have a trade surplus when it comes to services.

This makes sense, as we are and have been a service oriented economy for some time. And it's not close.

In 2021, 77% of the GDP was service. Over 3/4 of the economy.

Why exactly would you expect us to run a trade surplus in terms of goods when manufacturing is only 11.3% of our economy?

You could argue that we could increase that percentage if we could open up the markets in Europe and elsewhere, and I have said from the beginning that if Trump can force other countries to drop their tariffs and we drop ours, that's great.

If he can. I'm not nearly as confident as others that he can.

I don't even really object to him making the attempt. What I end up arguing about here is that people deny that us imposing tariffs will raise prices for Americans, when of course they will.

There's going to be a cost to trying this. I don't know why so many people are denying it, but there will be.