janrinok writes in with the following story:
Pharmaceuticals and semiconductors appear to be included in the draft 15pc tariff deal agreed yesterday (27 July) between the EU and the US administration.
Large trade deals are complex and cannot of course be completed in months, but following a meeting between US president Donald Trump and EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen yesterday (27 July), a headline agreement has been reached that sees a single 15pc tariff on most EU exports to the US.
Commentators are still parsing the details. As with all deals agreed with the US under the current administration, details are sparse, and there is little certainty, but there will be some relief that any further trade war escalation has been postponed for now, ahead of the 1 August deadline set by Trump.
“We have stabilised on a single 15pc tariff rate for the vast majority of EU exports,” said von der Leyen in a press conference yesterday. “This rate applies across most sectors, including cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. This 15pc is a clear ceiling. No stacking. All inclusive. So it gives much-needed clarity for our citizens and businesses. This is absolutely crucial.”
She added that the two largest trading blocs in the world had also agreed on zero-for-zero tariffs on a number of strategic products. “This includes all aircraft and component parts, certain chemicals, certain generics, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials. And we will keep working to add more products to this list,” said von der Leyen.
“On steel and aluminium, the EU and the US face the common external challenge of global overcapacity,” she said. “We will work together to ensure fair global competition. And to reduce barriers between us, tariffs will be cut. And a quota system will be put in place.
“This is a deal between the two largest economies in the world. We trade $1.7trn per year,” she said. “Together we are a market of 800m people. And we are nearly 44pc of global GDP. Just a few weeks after the NATO summit, this is the second building block, reaffirming the transatlantic partnership.”
The headline agreement also sees the EU agree to purchase more US energy products, always a priority for the US in the recent talks and, significantly, emphasises that the EU will purchase semiconductors from the US.
“US AI chips will help power our AI gigafactories and help the US to maintain their technological edge,” said von der Leyen.
The devil will of course be in the details in coming days and months, but the mood music is relatively positive for Ireland, with the apparent inclusion of pharmaceuticals and chips.
“Pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, which equate to 75pc of Ireland-US trade, are, we understand, included in the 15pc deal,” said Danny McCoy, IBEC CEO. “However, there is still a question around the stability of that rate over both the short and long-term in the face of ongoing Section 232 investigations.” He was referring to the investigation currently being carried out by the US administration “into the national security risks posed by US reliance on imported processed critical minerals and their derivative products”.
Reactions will be mixed on this deal, as it still represents a heavy burden for European countries, with many hoping for a deal closer to the UK 10pc agreement. However, there will also be some relief that the threatened 30pc Trump tariff has been avoided for now.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday July 30 2025, @02:15PM (6 children)
USA: "Hey, you had better sign this deal with us, or we'll cut off our own big toe!"
The correct response to that kind of threat is "OK", and then go right on doing what you were doing before. To do anything else, and especially to give in to whatever the demand is, is to signal that they can control you by continuing to make this threat. Whereas by not giving in, you force them to either admit that they are bluffing (which they usually are), or go through with it hurting themselves more than they hurt you.
In general, a useful response to somebody like Donald is "grey rocking": The idea is that you don't react, at all, to whatever the other person is doing, beyond the very minimal protecting yourself. This screws them up because they are all about provoking reactions from others, so they will likely get very angry from their loss of control of the situation. That anger can then be used to trick your target into mistakes.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 4, Funny) by kolie on Wednesday July 30 2025, @02:50PM
So the EU needs to give the US 15Pcs for every car they bring into the US?
Specs?
Windows or Linux?
(Score: 3, Informative) by looorg on Wednesday July 30 2025, @04:56PM (3 children)
Just another reason to dislike the EU bureaucracy. They caved to Trump, the TACOBOY. They should have just stayed strong and told him to go and cheat at another round of Golf. Or as noted just ignored him. He would have huffed and puffed and then caved in all he always does. I don't think a lot of companies are going to like the explanation of "it could have been worse". It could also have been better if they had had some kind of a spine.
This one was mentioned a bit in the news here and according to the various experts was completely unrealistic. They don't know what they would buy. There is nothing to buy. There isn't even enough things to buy to reach the fantasy sum they had pulled out of some orifice. I guess this is why Trump wanted to Drill Baby Drill.
If anything I would think that this "deal" will make a lot of European companies very interesting in starting to produce their own. Or buy from someone else. Someone that just isn't the USA. Perhaps that in the end will be the good part of the deal.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by gnuman on Thursday July 31 2025, @07:35AM (2 children)
I think there were other things here in consideration than the tariffs.
EU has a war on its eastern flanks. Keeping Trump happy is important here. And as Trump puts it -- these things can be thrown out as soon as not required. EU can come back in 1 or 5 years and just say "we are being treated completely unfairly by the US, we need to put a 20% tariff on american cars again that don't fit on our streets anyway"
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday July 31 2025, @09:37AM (1 child)
There is that explanation. As noted it's unclear how long it will last or be tolerated. It could change at any time again. Perhaps it's just there as a sort of appeasement to Trump. A big ego-stroke. That barely makes it better or more palatable.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Friday August 01 2025, @10:45AM
There's also this thing that it needs to be ratified in EU states. That may or may not happen and could take some time.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday July 31 2025, @12:41AM
USA: "Hey, you had better sign this deal with us, or we'll cut off our own big toe!"
You misunderstand the purpose of the terroriffs. They're to shift the tax burden from rich assholes like him and all his friends to the poor and middle class by causing inflation. Inflation ALWAYS helps the rich (until the economy collapses) at the expense of the 99.9%; those of us who do meaningful work rather than living off the work of others like all billionaires do. They're parasites.
The Stupid-Ass Voter Evisceration act: SAVE Trump and his family from prison
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Wednesday July 30 2025, @04:06PM (5 children)
Can you speak up as to what was wrong with all the trade agreements up until a year ago? Was the country losing money? Was the dollar losing value? Were trading figures on the decline? Please help me out here.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 30 2025, @05:12PM (2 children)
>Was the country losing money? Was the dollar losing value? Were trading figures on the decline? Please help me out here.
Always! From the perspective of the poor, it's all somebody else's fault why they're poor. Can't be their tightwad bosses who don't give them decent pay or benefits. Can't be the rich, they're obviously doing something right, and if they had less money they obviously would have to fire their (poor) workers, making a bad situation worse. No, if it's not their employers and it's not the fat cats sitting around on passive investments, it must be all those ferigners we give all them millions of dollars to in aid and stuff.
And this feller here, he's obviously doing somethin' right or he wouldn't get to be President, so if he says that it's "foreign trade imbalance" that's makin' me poor, well I a-reckon that's what it is. Gotta try somethin', the status quo sure as hell sucks.
/s
All it takes is to adjust your perspective... ignore reality, they never learned about that, and never will if the destruction of the public school system continues to succeed.
Just look at the economies of Mississippi and Arkansas - see how they fare with that quality schoolin' their young'uns git!
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 30 2025, @05:14PM (1 child)
Isn't school there really easy? The answer is always Jesus or God or both.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 30 2025, @11:47PM
>Isn't school there really easy?
Apparently so. Knew a PhD physicist who got a federal posting somewhere like deep woods Mississippi, modest salary by city standards but they were among the top 3% wealthiest in the little town. Nice house, comfortable enough to buy new cars etc. but seeing what was happening to their kids in school, the absolute numb-skull effect, they just had to leave.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mcgrew on Thursday July 31 2025, @12:53AM (1 child)
The whole purpose is to tax the poor and middle class. That's what a tariff is, an import tax. American consumers (including manufacturers, which also consume) to partly pay for his tax cuts for his own tax bracket that still balloon the deficit. He acts like Europe is paying that extra 15%, but it's us poor schmucks who have to buy shit who pay that import tax.
Trump is a convicted felon. I can't understand why people think he'll act like a statesman instead of the criminal he is.
The Stupid-Ass Voter Evisceration act: SAVE Trump and his family from prison
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Friday August 01 2025, @10:48AM
You know, you could be right on this. The super-rich just go to different country to enjoy their toys anyway and side-step the tariffs as they side-step income taxes.
(Score: 4, Informative) by jelizondo on Wednesday July 30 2025, @04:23PM
In my opinion Europe became overly dependent on the US and is paying for it. Macron calling the deal "submission" [reuters.com] sounds like theatrics and not much else.
France got screwed on the submarine deal [theguardian.com] with Australia by Biden back in 2021, so they had plenty of time to reflect on a "alliance" that only works for the US of A.(Australia agreed to pay France $830 million in reparations, so it got screwed too!)
As Henry Kissinger is reported to have said: "It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Wednesday July 30 2025, @06:25PM (3 children)
Von de Leyen was asked several months back about how would the EU pay for any exorbitant 'taxes' that the US might impose upon it. She smiled and replied something to the effect that the EU is carrying lots of US debt, and they could always start selling that. Of course, it would be a disaster for the US economy.
How big a potential disaster was also demonstrated by a very small action which immediately sent significant jitters throughout the US stock exchange. Canada and Japan were also party to the same action.
Furthermore, the actual agreement has still to be written and ratified. That will not happen for several months at least. Several agreements that have been recently written do not accurately reflect what the countries concerned actually thought had been agreed.
Maybe, just maybe, we haven't yet seen the full picture. And before anyone says "but you agreed", the US also agreed to participate in NATO to the extent that they did - and now they want to reduce that but keep the same level of control. The US also agreed to be the world police providing that the western world supported the US economy. So we did, and now they are not happy with the fact that they have that role. What about the Paris Agreement? Or WHO? When it comes to breaking agreements, the USA is top of the class.
S
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday July 31 2025, @12:57AM (2 children)
Von de Leyen was asked several months back about how would the EU pay for any exorbitant 'taxes' that the US might impose upon it.
Europe isn't being taxed, Americans are. Europe's problem with the tariffs is that it makes their goods 15% more expensive for Americans to buy and will surely hurt their sales badly.
The Stupid-Ass Voter Evisceration act: SAVE Trump and his family from prison
(Score: 3, Touché) by janrinok on Thursday July 31 2025, @05:13AM (1 child)
Yes, I know that! That is why I quoted the word "taxes" as that was the word that was used.
Don't be so pedantic. Take your argument up with the journalist who posed the question.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday August 08 2025, @07:29PM
I know you know that, but there are a lot of people, including the media, who repeat the falsehood that Europe pays the taxes on European goods. Europe hates it because it will cost them sales.
The Stupid-Ass Voter Evisceration act: SAVE Trump and his family from prison
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 30 2025, @10:38PM
I don't know about drugs, but I can understand why the Irish are relieved about potatoes.