Four days on tour in the Gulf countries in early May for the United States VRP Donald Trump, left with the key $ 1,200 billion in contracts. Europe, in search of new markets, has attended, powerless, the roundup of contracts on which its own industries are in competition. Trump, in each capital where he has passed, tried to impose his deal: you buy 100 % US, 0 % Europe… Result: Qatar announces a record order for Boeing, 160 aircraft for an amount close to the $ 200 billion. A market on which Airbus had positioned itself. Furious, the European commissioner at the internal market and industry, the Frenchman Stéphane Séjénéné, wins his phone to call the Prime Minister of Qatar. “You were in discussion with Airbus, Lance stays.
– Do not worry, Boeing will not be able to support the pace and provide enough devices in due time, there will be a part for Airbusreplied Qatari.
– Be carefuljokes the European Commissioner to relax the atmosphere, The Boeing loses their doors in flight! »» The exchange ends with a laugh. The anecdote speaks volumes about the nervousness that reigns in Brussels.
Business kidnapping
The European Union is taken by Donald Trump: on the one hand, the 90 -day period on the negotiation of customs duties imposed by Washington, the framework of which is not defined, and on the other hand pressure from the American to close markets to Europe and organize the kidnapping of its large companies. Speeding in the Arab-Persian Gulf, the stay of stays in the South Korean, Mexican and Indian markets. The latter could carry for French Danone – the Indians consume a lot of dairy products – as for Airbus or the German automotive industry. However, India is still widely closed, for the Union to start discussions for a free trade agreement. More surprisingly, the main outlets identified for European industries are … in Europe itself.
“Exchanges with China, which invades us with low -cost products, are less controlled and less constrained than exchanges between Member States of the Union”is indignant a senior leader of the European executive. Hence the idea of working on a Buy European Act establishing European preference as a criterion of public orders in particular. It remains to be seen whether Biden did in six months with the inflation Reduction Act – $ 400 billion – is compatible with the Union inertia and divisions. In the meantime, the agreement of Mercosur, on which France is now alone against 26 to issue reserves, is returned to the rails, at high speed. Imminent final signature …
The mother of battles is to protect herself from the Chinese ogre
At the attack and in defense, against the Bulldozer Trump, the Europeans organize themselves. Since arriving in the oval office, the American president has invited everything that the Union has large bosses and industry captains, for a lunch in Mar-A-Lago or a meeting in the oval office, on the air of “Come and install your seat and factories in the American tax haven”. The European Commission therefore alerted its emissaries. From the rumor of making contact with the Trump administration with a big boss in Berlin, Frankfurt, Rome, Turin or Madrid, the commissioners or their administrators are responsible for contacting them to make them aware of economic issues, or even reassure them about the abolition of standards, constraints. We are there. The urgency is such that in the image of French and German heads of state, the commission probes the activity sectors for, on the menu, “shoot” regulations and obstacles that gravitors, so far, made it impossible to resolve. The famous CS3D on companies surveillance throughout their chain of values, social and environmental criteria should fall.
TOCKER
Finally, the mother of the battles, to hear the Brussels experts, is to protect themselves from the Chinese ogre. By imposing control over what comes out of its borders in Beijing and by reinforcing the borders of Europe what comes in. Problem, not everyone plays the game. “At the port of Le Havre, the controls make it possible to reject a product in 2,000 from China, in Rotterdam, it is one in two million”denounces a senior European official. One way to illustrate the weaknesses of colander Europe, overwhelmed by the flow from the Empire in the environment. Resistance to China is undoubtedly the most decisive in the medium and long term. She is played now, “Before it is too late and Europeans realize how much the promise of prosperity on which the union was built was a chimera”concludes a member of the Brussels executive.
