Trump’s European War

Seventy-five years after American troops stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, the United States is poised to take the fight to Europe once again — this time in a trade war. And with Britain in desperate need of a post-Brexit trade deal to add to the so-called “Special Relationship” with the US dating back to World War II, President Trump is looking to pry the United Kingdom out of Brussels’s orbit on everything from trade to foreign policy.

Speaking at the White House before leaving for the G7 summit with European leaders in Biarritz, France, at the beginning of this week, President Trump threatened to hit France with tariffs in response to the tax on tech companies recently passed by French president Emmanuel Macron’s government.

“I’m not a big fan of the tech companies because they were very much opposed to the Republicans,” Trump said, “but I don’t want foreign countries unfairly taxing our companies. And if they do that, we’ll be taxing their wine like they’ve never seen before.”

But Chardonnay is far from the only thing in Trump’s sights. Despite the trade surplus that the US enjoys vis-à-vis the European Union because of large service sector exports, Trump is angered by the ongoing deficit in goods trade — $169 billion in 2018, according to the US Trade Representative. So, although America is locked in a gargantuan trade war with China with no end in sight, the Trump administration looks set to open a second front by imposing tariffs on up to $25 billion of European imports, on everything from German cars to Italian cheese and Scotch whisky.