Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has shown the European Union the cold shoulder. He is right to do so. Europe’s position on trade is unreasonable and destructive. Unlike other U.S. allies, it shows no sign of backing down. Until it does, Trump should not give EU lawmakers the attention they crave.
Nixon Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once asked, “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?” Former German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen is positioning herself as the answer to that question. She is president of the European Commission, the EU’s most powerful body. Despite being unelected, she effectively pulls the EU’s strings.
Von der Leyen has been talking up her ability to negotiate down Trump’s tariffs, but unfortunately for her, Trump is unwilling to give any ground. He has not met her, aside from a brief handshake at the Pope’s funeral, and he was scathing in his comments at the Group of Seven summit about ongoing talks.
There’s good reason for that hostility. The way Europe makes regulation seems designed to make it impossible for American companies to do business in Europe. Trump’s claim that the EU was formed “to hurt the U.S. on trade” is debatable, but the consequences of EU policy choices are clear.
The problem is not just tariffs. The EU is addicted to overregulation. European laws are extremely hostile to non-European companies, especially those in the United States. Just recently, Europe gave itself the power to fine U.S. tech giants Apple and Meta hundreds of millions of dollars for spurious reasons.
Europe consistently creates regulations that punish law-abiding companies in pursuit of goals it sees as morally upstanding, often related to the environment, and it’s not just the U.S. that loses out. Take Malaysia, for example, whose economy is propped up by smallholder farmers selling palm oil, an ingredient in chocolate, soap, and countless other everyday products. Europe has attacked Malaysia relentlessly, accusing its palm oil industry of deforestation.
In reality, Malaysia has pioneered sustainability in palm oil production with incredible results. “Primary forest loss,” a key measurement of deforestation, has dropped dramatically. Malaysia kept a promise to keep half its territory covered by forest. When was the last time you heard of a Western government keeping a promise on the environment? Palm oil was already a very efficient crop, much more so than European competitors such as sunflower, soybean, and rapeseed oils. But free-market innovation has taken its green credentials to new levels, and Malaysian forests are benefiting.
Nonetheless, absurd EU rules penalize Malaysian palm oil imports on deforestation grounds. The “EU Deforestation Regulation” attacks the product, creating billions of dollars’ worth of red tape for companies to “prove” their products are not linked to deforestation. The U.S. government calls that regulation unfair and highlights how it could hit U.S. companies, too.
The EU is full to the brim with ineffective regulations such as this, which punish non-European economies. European lawmakers such as von der Leyen resent the fact that Europeans dare to buy products from elsewhere, such as Malaysia or the U.S., so the EU creates unfair rules, hidden behind “save the planet” slogans.
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The EU conducts its business in shadowy rooms behind closed doors with little democratic accountability and plenty of corruption scandals. That attitude filters out into its policymaking. Its regulations say one thing but do another. Europe has no qualms about screwing over other countries in the name of its green goals. That’s why Trump is doing the right thing by shunning European lawmakers over trade.
This is not a matter of reforming a particular law or removing a specific tariff. The EU needs to change its approach fundamentally. Until it does that, there is no point in other economies talking to it because there is no progress to be made, as post-Brexit Britain is finding out. Trump should continue refusing to speak to von der Leyen until she comes back to him with a new posture — or until she is inevitably replaced by someone else.
Jason Reed is a policy analyst and political commentator who has contributed to more than 100 major media outlets across 15 countries. Read more at jason-reed.co.uk and follow him @JasonReed624.