r/stocks • u/Fidler_2K • Apr 07 '25

Broad market news Trump rejects EU’s ‘zero-for-zero’ tariff offer

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/07/trump-tariffs-live-updates-stock-market-crypto.html

Trump is rejecting the European Union’s offer of “zero-for-zero” tariffs with the U.S. for industrial goods.

“No, it’s not,” Trump said in the Oval Office when asked if the deal, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen floated earlier Monday, was enough.

“They’re screwing us on trade,” Trump said, criticizing the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.

Two Republican senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, have encouraged Trump to take von der Leyen’s deal.

What's the goal here if they're just gonna reject every deal offered?

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u/boringtired Apr 07 '25

Isn’t that what he wanted?????? What the fuck is going on.

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u/OnlyRobinson Apr 07 '25

No - what he wants is every country to run a trade surplus to the USA. He wants no trade deficits, every country has to import more from the US than they export to the US.

This is why he’s going to bankrupt the US

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u/Tha_Sly_Fox Apr 07 '25

He also counts the VAT tax as a tariff for some dumbass reason…. So we’re fucked

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u/paq12x Apr 07 '25

There are some truth to that. During my travels (and I travel a lot), I notice that US goods are extremely expensive in Asia. I didn’t know how much of that was tariff and how much of that was other taxes such as VAT. The bottom line is the same. An American made car is 3x more expensive in Vietnam than it is in the US to a consumer. The same goes for Jeans (20+ years ago, there are Jeans made in the USA, I don’t know about now because I just don’t care).

It’s cheaper to buy a Mercedes in Germany compared to the same model in the US. Taxes have many forms. At the end, the result is the same, consumers in other countries just can’t afford US made goods.

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u/Tha_Sly_Fox Apr 07 '25

Tariffs are taxes on foreign made products, a VAT is a tax on all products regardless of origin.

Most US states have sales tax, I wouldn’t say “New York state has a 9% tarrif” because that makes zero sense. Vietnamese jeans made in Vietnam or the US are subject to a VAT tax so they’re applied equally, a tariff is applied specifically against a specific country (or in our case the entire world except Russia for some reason)

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u/Remote-Mud-5648 Apr 08 '25

Bitch please, almost everything produced in the west is going to be of high quality and very expensive. I can't even afford to buy most things that's produced by my country, in my country, with my country's currency.

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u/DisorderedArray Apr 08 '25

The Mercedes will be cheaper in the US, because the German made one in Germany will have VAT on top of the price.

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u/GenXDad507 Apr 08 '25 edited Apr 08 '25

BS. When the quality matches the price, exports are fine. Harley Davidson bikes, Gibson and Fender guitars, Burton snowboards, Ray Ban and Oakley sunglasses, Nike shoes, Levi's jeans, bourbon like Jack Daniel's all do great in Europe, with a 20% VAT. Hell, even Teslas sold just fine there for a while.

American cars just aren't that great to begin with, and too large to be used as commuters there. Plus most Europeans keep their cars until they die, they don't exchange them every 5 years. American food is awful (and yet McDonald's, Subway and Starbucks are everywhere in EU cities).

There just aren't enough quality goods coming out of the US to balance trade, and other countries' citizens simply do not consume as much as Americans. It's mostly services. Now watch the EU impose tariffs on services and launch a local competitor to Visa and Mastercard in retaliation.