It wasn’t enough that Trump wanted to screw the planet with his dumb tariffs.

It wasn’t enough that he wanted to screw Ukraine, Europe, and NATO.

It wasn’t enough that the EU countries are so disunited that they cannot find a common position neither with regard to defense, nor about the best reaction to have to these absurd tariffs. Initially, Ursula said the EU is considering retaliatory measures, but countries whose leaders try to suck Trump’s dick (including Hungary, Slovakia, Italy, Romania) were against such a measure.

And now, Ursula von der Dummkopf offers Trump ‘zero-for-zero’ tariffs deal on all industrial goods.

We stand ready to negotiate with the US. Indeed, we have offered zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods as we have successfully done with many other trading partners.

The bitch doesn’t understand that you cannot negotiate with a terrorist! This ass is not a partner! He’s a racketeer: “We put a big tariff on Europe. They are coming to the table; they want to talk, but there’s no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis — not just for the present, but also for the past.” Sultan Trump asks for haraç.

And the results as of today, around noon:

  • Euro STOXX 50 🔻 4.87%
  • Euro STOXX 600 🔻 4.43%
  • CAC 40 🔻 4.77%
  • DAX 🔻 4.43%
  • FTSE 100 🔻 5.40%
  • FTSE MIB 🔻 5.54%
  • IBEX 35 🔻 5.00%
  • Hong Kong HSI 🔻 13.22%
  • Hong Kong HSCEI 🔻 13.75%
  • Hong Kong HSTECH 🔻 17.16%
  • Hong Kong HSCI 🔻 13.64%
  • Shanghai SSE 🔻 7.34%
  • TAIEX 🔻 9.70%
  • Nikkei 225 🔻 7.83%

What’s not to like?

Xi Jinping’s People’s Daily, in a commentary not translated in the English edition, but quoted in The NYT, adopted a dignified stance:

The abuse of tariffs by the United States will have an impact on China, but ‘the sky will not fall’. China is a super economy. We are strong and resilient in the face of the U.S. tariff bullying.

“The sky will not fall” is quite common in China in editorial materials. Back to the commentary:

The commentary highlighted how China hopes to position itself as the tariffs cause growing economic disruption. It wants to be seen as a responsible champion of fair trade that is too powerful to succumb to U.S. pressure.

China also sought to project solidarity with other nations targeted by U.S. tariffs in another state media commentary on Sunday.

In that piece, China accused the United States of trying to “subvert the existing international economic and trade order” by putting “U.S. interests above the common good of the international community.” Washington was also advancing “U.S. hegemonic ambitions at the cost of the legitimate interests of all countries,” it said.

Xinhua, on the other hand, in an English-language material:

Analysts warn that the sweeping U.S. tariffs and potential EU retaliation could trigger trade flow disruptions, stifle growth prospects, and fuel inflation, further destabilizing the EU’s already fragile economy.
…
Zarko Puhovski, a Croatian political analyst, told Xinhua that Trump’s policies have created significant uncertainty in the business world. “As far as I can judge, the EU will suffer the most, as it lacks both the unity and the political strength to stand against the United States.”
…
“The European economy will be hit hard. Europe now faces the difficult challenge of finding new markets, a process that will be neither quick nor easy. We’re seeing rising prices and declining sales,” said Milen Keremedchiev, a Bulgarian economic expert.

Germany, the EU’s largest economy and a major exporter to the United States, is expected to bear the brunt of the tariffs. The German Economic Institute estimates the country could suffer losses of up to 200 billion euros (220 billion dollars) under the new tariffs.

Similarly, the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) warned that the tariffs would stifle European exports, particularly in the automotive, machinery and metal sectors.

“The U.S. protectionist measures strike at the heart of Austria’s industrial base. In sectors like automotive and machinery, where export dependency is especially high, the new tariffs are causing substantial losses,” said WIFO economist Hendrik Mahlkow.
…
ING, a Dutch bank, lowered its eurozone GDP growth forecast to 0.6 percent for 2025 and 1.0 percent for 2026. “Consumption and investment are likely to remain subdued, keeping economic growth in the eurozone at a snail’s pace,” ING said.
…
Ljubo Jurcic, a Croatian economist and former minister of economy, told Xinhua that the tariffs would slow down economic growth and increase inflation by 1-3 percent worldwide.

This seems exceedingly optimistic to me.

Back to the piece about Ursula, here’s what Euronews has judged useful to add:

The levels are so prohibitive that Brussels fears Asian countries, whose economies depend on exports, will be locked out of the American market and reroute their products to Europe as an alternative. China is a particular cause of concern, as it is already under intense scrutiny for flooding the West with low-cost, heavily subsidised goods.

FOR FUCK’S SAKE. No, they’re not more subsidized than ours!

If anything, the EU agriculture is subsidized, and a number of European private companies are subsidized through European funds. For a couple of examples, look at this older post of mine. LanguageTool received “Funding by the European Union”; ProtonVPN received funding from both Switzerland and the “Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union” (the info isn’t anymore on their website, but it was). But there are thousands and thousands.

Otherwise, more cheap goods for us, so this “rerouting” should be great in the short term! 😊

But seriously, the EU has accused the Chinese EV manufacturers that they’re subsidized by the Chinese state. Let’s examine the situation in the EU through a few examples:

  1. Heavy subsidizing of the purchase of EVs for several years. The EU likely spent €50–80 billion on EV purchase subsidies from 2015 to 2025.
  2. Sweden’s Northvolt EV battery cell plant in Germany received around half a billion euros in subsidies from the federal government as well as the Schleswig-Holstein state government.
  3. The Automotive Cells Company (ACC) a joint venture between Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and TotalEnergies, has benefited from both state and EU subsidies to build its factory in Billy-Berclau/Douvrin, France, and its future factories in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and Termoli, Italy.
  4. ProLogium, from Taiwan, received €1.5 billion in subsidies from the French government for its battery factory in Dunkirk, with approval from the European Commission.
  5. Volkswagen PowerCo plans 6 EV factories in Europe. PowerCo’s battery factory in Sagunt, Spain, received subsidies from the Spanish government estimated to range between €98 million and €152 million.

Traditionally, such EU subsidies for private companies were granted under the European Regional Development Fund. More recently, supplementary subsidies have been granted under the European Union’s Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework, designed to support green industrial projects and allegedly set to provide a competitive offer to US subsidies provided by the Inflation Reduction Act. Note that the European Regional Development Fund can also be used to finance battery factories!

But we blame China for its offer of cheap EVs. And we penalize China with tariffs on EVs while, of course, we’re bending to the United States!

  • “A tree that is unbending is easily broken.” — The Tao Te Ching, chapter 76.
  • “The reed that bends in the wind survives the storm.” — Aesop’s The Oak and the Reed.
  • “Capul plecat sabia nu-l taie.” = “No sword cuts off a bowed head.” — Romanian proverb derived from Daniil Sihastrul by Dimitrie Bolintineanu: “Capul ce se pleacă paloșul nu-l taie, / Dar cu umilință lanțu-l înconvoaie!” = “The head that bows escapes the broadsword’s blade, / Yet in humility, chains shall its spirit fade.” Another variant of the derived proverb: “Capul plecat sabia nu-l taie, dar nici soarele nu-l vede.” = “The bowed head the sword doesn’t cut, but neither does it see the sun.”

It is so. We might not see the sun ever again.

While we, the collective West, are despising self-sufficiency because we call it autarchy, and we associate it to North Korea, so we had a dogmatic “global outsourcing” policy that meant “let’s manufacture everything elsewhere,” China did the opposite through its “Made in China 2025” program, extended with “Vision 2035” (more links here and here; also, in a much older post).

We are literally dead.

This is the guy some people want to negotiate with:

Yesterday, China issued Retaliatory Tariffs of 34%, on top of their already record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidization of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation, despite my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set. Therefore, if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!