US officials press European countries to maintain access for American defense companies as EU plans €150 billion ReArm initiative that could limit participation of non-EU firms amid growing transatlantic tensions.
Since war weapons are bought by the government with public money, putting tariffs on them doesn’t do anything. You can only make an effect with tariffs on purchases by private entities. In that sense the EU could put tariffs on weapon parts that European manufacturers buy from the US. I am not sure how big that market is though. AFAIK a lot of EU components end up in US weapons, for instance optics for military vehicles.
It does! I’m not a lawyer and know nothing about EU law in this regard but in my country, tariffs would effectively raise the US weaponry prices making them impossible to win a tender (not sure if that is correct English terminology) unless they offer something that EU just don’t produce at all or the price is ridiculously high.
Yes but they want to make money as well. It’s a conundrum they are too stupid to solve.
Maybe some tariffs then? You know, to balance the US-EU weapons trade? How much EU weaponry does the US buy? :)
Hey, the US can still bid on EU arms programs, but we’ll have to put a 200% tarriff in to balance the trade, because that’s totally how it works.
Wait, let me check with chatGPT to confirm.
Yep, that’s how it works!
Since war weapons are bought by the government with public money, putting tariffs on them doesn’t do anything. You can only make an effect with tariffs on purchases by private entities. In that sense the EU could put tariffs on weapon parts that European manufacturers buy from the US. I am not sure how big that market is though. AFAIK a lot of EU components end up in US weapons, for instance optics for military vehicles.
It does! I’m not a lawyer and know nothing about EU law in this regard but in my country, tariffs would effectively raise the US weaponry prices making them impossible to win a tender (not sure if that is correct English terminology) unless they offer something that EU just don’t produce at all or the price is ridiculously high.
You could more easily exclude US products from tenders for security/strategic reasons. That is easier to achieve and more honest.