Yeah, the US has a lot of economic weight to swing around, but the world has also spend the decade (!) since Trump was first elected finding other business outlets and generally needing the US less, meaning that the relative weight of the US and the rest of the world has normalized significantly. The EU is stronger, China is stronger, Canada is stronger. The US withdrawing from the world economy would hurt everyone, but it would hurt the US a whole lot more than everyone else.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Maybe, but I think you’re overselling the EU a bit. Yeah, there have been some high profile changes (in terms of stuff that makes the media), but I wonder how much that actually matters.
The EU hasn’t really ever been a big importer of US goods anyway, at least not for decades. The biggest importers of US products are Mexico, China, and Canada. The US imports a fair amount from the EU, so if they retaliate with tariffs of their own, the US will just buy less from them, which will hurt the EU more than the US.
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Oh, to be clear, I don’t think the US has been dethroned on the world stage in terms of being the largest single elephant in the room. It’s just that the weight between the US elephant and all the other elephants (combined) has evened out quite a lot.
These tariffs might well do a lot to swing that even further.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
They absolutely could. What matters is what other countries do in response.
As an American, I’m not happy right now because things are more expensive without a good reason. Tariffs just end up being a hidden sales tax, and that sucks. We don’t need more manufacturing jobs here unless we can do it cheaper or better. Keep good paying jobs here and send the lower paying jobs where they’ll be appreciated.
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I’m also an American. And I am frankly livid about this.