The EU has already agreed to one of the most lopsided trade deals in history as a result of all of this. It's a business arrangement just like any other, and at this point it's pretty clear where the leverage is. It's not with the EU.
They'll just ramp up economic production and turn toward China like we're seeing with BYD penetration.
The 15% flat tariff (with 0% reciprocal tariff), was only a small part of the agreement.
> They'll just ramp up economic production and turn toward China like we're seeing with BYD penetration.
EU also agreed to $750 billion in USA energy purchases over the next three years and another $600 billion in miscellaneous investments in USA companies and industries.
Maybe some of the EU member states don't like how the "union" operates. In that case, they should pull a Brexit. We already saw it happen once.
https://www.politico.eu/article/eus-600bn-us-investment-will...
The extra investments pledged under the trade deal would come from private companies, which Brussels conceded it has no power to control.
1. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_...
> The political agreement of 27 July 2025 is not legally binding. Beyond taking the immediate actions committed, the EU and the US will further negotiate, in line with their relevant internal procedures, to fully implement the political agreement.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_...
You might consider updating your mistaken prior beliefs.
Edit: I see another comment made the same point. I'll have to presume that after you've been presented with this new information, you'll realize that you are in fact very wrong.
> The European Union's pledge to buy $250 billion of U.S. energy supplies per year is unrealistic because it would require the redirection of most U.S. energy exports towards Europe [0, emphasis mine]
[0] https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulat...
Kinda. The EU have no power to make that happen, so it was more of an agreement to aim for that. But even if the EU buys, say, $750bn oil and natural gas from the USA, because of how interchangeable most (but not all) of that stuff is, even if they did agree to it in an enforceable manner it would only really mean the EU wouldn't buy the same stuff from somewhere else and also the USA wouldn't sell the same stuff to someone else.
Then my mind turns to a couple things.
America was founded on the intellectual rejection of one man taxes on imports.
Demonstrations of power are not an end unto themselves, they are theater and province of the weak minded.
Regardless of whether it's rooted in principle or posturing, the EU still has to live with its economic reality. And that reality heavily favors USA in whatever they deem necessary to facilitate their economy.
The EU didn't agree to the one-sided trade deal for no reason.
I'm honestly confused, you sort of repeated "but the US was willing to impose higher taxes on its citizens than the EU"
I get there's the pandemic of the braindead thinking they've invented new economics like new gravity, but I'd think it'd feel a bit absurd when it's that bald-faced.
I'd especially think it was absurd when you can check on how the markets, the real skin in the game, price this fantastic W.
Most countries that aren’t the U.S. take affirmative steps to discourage imports and encourage exports. Sometimes they even engage in currency manipulation to make exports artificially cheap while making imports more expensive.
Many of the big EU countries are export-oriented economies. Germany is not upset about the trade deal because they perceive it as a “fantastic W.” https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/07/29/german-politic.... They don’t want Germans buying American products tax free. They want Americans to buy German products tax free.
I think it's reasonable to need to perform a ritualistic EU sneering with this much Winning occuring, but it's a little bit disquieting see it sort of cause this black hole where you can't discuss the thing at hand, just complain about other things.
The 1789 constitution created a federal government that was funded chiefly by import duties! Setting up the system of import taxes was one of the first things Congress did. Import taxes were also a founding plank of Lincoln’s GOP.
But the truth is: there is no concrete deal beyond the tariff. There are supposed investments and expenses the EU will do which have not been specified and would need to be approved by national governments.
This will be a nothingburger, cause all Trump cares about is the announcement, not any actual effect.
You may know this cause even in his first term he made a deal to export beef to the EU, which sounded big, but was effectively un-impactful once the details were hammered out.
This is just how the $600 bn worth of investments will pan out, leading Trump to state time again that the EU has screwed the US. Fortunately he'll be too old by then to be taken seriously.
Tbf, Trump is already too old and is already not being taken seriously by anybody, so...