I think this will prove to be a major victory. The democrat media is already doing their best to portray it as a victory for Obama, or a disaster because of European hatred for Trump, or some other cockamamie nonsense.
The big factor is the US and EU combine our huge economies to resist Chinese spoiling attacks aimed at distracting Trump from focusing the power of the US economy on Chinese malfeasance in international markets. This will force China to the bargaining table and probably soon. The other big factor is EU agreement to import US LNG to combat the German pipeline to Russia and decrease European reliance on Russian energy. This is a US and EU win.
Irwin Stelzer:
“…For Trump, the victory was greater than even he imagined it might be. He has been arguing that tariffs are merely a tactic in the trade war, his way of persuading the trading partners who have been taking unfair advantage of America to come to the bargaining table. Which the E.U. has done, proving that Trump is not a mad protectionist, but, at least for now, a champion of freer, fairer trade that will benefit American workers, farmers, and businesses. In return for agreeing to attempt to resolve all steel and aluminum tariff issues, and related retaliations, here’s what Trump got:
- The parties will work towards zero tariffs and removal of all trade barriers for non-auto industrial goods, the fate of autos to be decided at a later date.
- The E.U. will “almost immediately” increase its purchases of soybeans. Soybean farmers have been hit hard by China’s decision to aim its retaliation for U.S. tariffs squarely at them, in a so-far failed effort to shake their support for Trump in key states with close senate races (North Dakota, Indiana, Missouri). Trump countered by resuscitating a Depression-era statute that allows him to dole out $12 billion to strapped farmers, no congressional approval needed, and now has further proof to offer farmers that he “has their backs.”
- The E.U. will import “massive” amounts of American LNG, a bonanza for U.S. natural gas producers that at the same time diversifies Europe’s energy supplies, diluting the power over Europe’s energy supplies that Nordstream 2, the planned pipeline from Russia to Germany, will put at Putin’s disposal—a “horrible” project Trump told a miffed Merkel.
- The U.S. and the E.U. will work together to reform the World Trade Organization, which Trump has been accused of planning to wreck.
- Most important, the E.U. and the U.S. will combine their forces—some 50 percent of global GDP—to end the theft of intellectual property, forced technology transfers, industrial subsidies to state-owned enterprises, and the use of excess capacity to drive global prices below cost.
The combination of U.S. and E.U. economic firepower is perhaps the most important feature of the agreement. While China’s President, Xi Jinping, his debt-laden economy slowing, is shopping the world for allies in the Asian theater of the trade war, Trump has enlisted Europe in his battle to end the trade practices that China has used and is using to achieve dominance in the industries of the future.
Unfortunately for Trump’s critics, try as they might, they cannot interpret this as anything other than a victory for his belligerent tactics. It is said around Washington that if the president walked across the Potomac River his critics would say the feat proves that Trump can’t swim…”