The EU is finally paying the price for its hypocrisy
The language was typically colourful, and the more fastidious historians of post-war history might quibble about some of the details. Even so, there is no denying one simple point. When president Trump argued today that the European Union was specifically designed to “screw” the United States – and that this was the reason he is planning to slap 25 per cent tariffs on goods shipped into the American market from the EU – he wasn’t wrong.
True, the EU’s president Ursula von der Leyen might never have put it in precisely those words, and nor have any of her predecessors. But that has often been the intention. Over the last 50 years, a succession of EU leaders, with the French president usually first in the queue, have lined up to champion the central mission of the bloc as being a rival to the United States.
We can see that in a whole succession of policies, both large and small. Airbus was formed to challenge the grip of Boeing in the market for commercial jets and has largely succeeded. The Single Market was established to match the size and power of America’s 52 states. Its EU’s regulatory system was designed to set global standards, in the belief that rules made in Brussels were better than anything that could be devised in Washington.
Perhaps most of all, the euro was specifically created to challenge the might of the dollar, and eventually replace it within the global financial system. Indeed, the former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing, when he was General De Gaulle’s finance minister, coined the term “exorbitant privilege” to describe the benefits that flowed from controlling the global reserve currency, and devoted much of the rest of his career to trying to end that privilege.
The list goes on and on. For decades, the EU’s true believers have seen it as an economic and geopolitical rival to the US, and through tariff walls, punitive regulation, and hostile commercial policies have sought to use their power to take Washington down a peg or two.
But there has always been one flaw in that ambition. It hasn’t actually worked. While the EU has matched America for size – and has never been shy about attempting to protect its industries from outside competition – it has never come close to matching the United States for entrepreneurial vigour, or innovative energy.
Indeed, Trump might want to pay closer attention to all the tariffs Brussels imposes, and question whether they are such a good idea. In trying to retaliate against Europe, he may end up copying one of its biggest mistakes.
And yet, the president’s broader point is surely right. The EU has been blatantly trying to “screw” the US for decades. It can hardly complain that someone in the White House has finally noticed – and decided to do something about it.
The EU is finally paying the price for its hypocrisy