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EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification

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Re: EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification

#71

Post by SllX »

kevin061 wrote: post #13
rapsey wrote: post #2

[flagged]

If by pissing off you mean "making foreign entities follow European regulations", then, yes. But also, that's exactly what US, China, and Russia do too. Don't break the law. It's simple.

Laws are negotiable between sovereign states representing the business interests of their nations. The EU, not being a nation itself, may not get that part and may have been feeling a little too invincible as a bloc of nations, but they have still basically pissed off most of their larger trading partners and it doesn’t stop there. Qatar is threatening to stop selling LNG over some corporate sustainability directives the EU passed in 2024, since the potential fines amount to 5% of their state energy corporation’s global revenue[1].

Personally I like the way Qatari’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi put it[2]:

> “If the case is that I lose 5% of my generated revenue by going to Europe, I will not go to Europe," Al-Kaabi reportedly said in reference to the associated penalties back in December 2024. "I’m not bluffing.”

Now you might be thinking, well who cares? It’s Qatar! Well Qatar also supplies about 12 to 14% of Europe’s LNG imports. Europe could get that gas from elsewhere, but elsewhere kinda includes either America or Russia.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/qatars-energy-minist...

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2025/08/06/europe-is...

Re: EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification

#72

Post by graemep »

littlestymaar wrote: post #19
thecopy wrote: post #11

It all seems so surprisingly unnecessary. Angry geriatric man f*cks the world up for generations to come, then in a short bit he will die, and not have to live through the consequences.

Even if Trump died today, Vance would continue his nefarious job.

Vance seems to be very different. For all we know his real views are still these https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/15/jd-vance-donald-tru...

Re: EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification

#73

Post by dragonwriter »

RandomLensman wrote: post #58
dragonwriter wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US is providing security guarantees to Qatar? When did the Senate vote on those? Treaties aren't the only mechanism of security guarantees. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/assu...

Note the word "assuring" not "guaranteeing" (or "this assurance" in Sec 2 d).

Those are literally synonyms.

Re: EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification

#74

Post by 4gotunameagain »

renewiltord wrote: post #35
4gotunameagain wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had the US not had a demented lunatic as a president, none of this would've happened.

Trump or no Trump, the US's ability to be Europe's security shield had to come to an end one day or another. Trump is more a symptom than a cause: the US has weakened and others have strengthened. As many are eager to point out, the game is already up. Pretending like there is a future here is pointless. America had best leave internal European civil wars like Russia-Ukraine to the locals and retreat to whatever bord…

Europe never decided to outsource its defense to the US.

It was the US that wholeheartedly sold quadrillions worth of armaments to the EU, in order to support the cold war remnants of its military industrial complex.

The "funding the retiree class" comment is simply silly, I will not even get baited.

Re: EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification

#75

Post by calgoo »

ginko wrote: post #33
mk89 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually the Green deal is an attempt at that. Masked as a way to save the planet, its goal is to get rid of deep dependencies like gas oil etc, which we in Europe don't have sufficiently. The main issue is the way the transition is happening, because I see China doing exactly what we should be doing: build coal, nuclear, etc. while you build tons of solar panels or windfarms. The self inflicting pain forced by radic…

I never understood why energy independence wasn’t put front and center when talking about this.

Because its not in the interest of the US that EU think that way. Thats what a lot of the trade deals that the US has imposed on the rest of the world.

Re: EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification

#76

Post by austin-cheney »

captn3m0 wrote: post #62
nosianu wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will have to translate this German language article, but this is NOT Trump. It is about the tech billionaires supporting this quest, and why they want it. https://orf.at/stories/3417584/ I doubt Trump would have ever even thought of Greenland on his own. I think was told about it, and the narrative planted in his head deliberately. This focus on "Trump" in Internet comments and media irks me to no end. Trump is n…

We even know which billionaire planted the Greenland idea: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/15/ronald-laude...

This gets me thinking that the US would benefit so much from trading its income tax for an aggressive estate tax. The US would have far greater tax revenue, the standard of living would dramatically increase for the average citizen, and idiots like these two would be powerless. Let influence be reserved for those who have built it.

Re: EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification

#77

Post by kevin061 »

csmpltn wrote: post #54

[flagged]

How exactly has the EU fucked over the US?

By enforcing basic consumer protections like making sure airlines can't just unilaterally cancel your flight with no compensation? By making sure your image cannot be used by megacorporations for sex ads without permission? By making sure companies who intentionally or unintentionally leak personal information suffer consequences? By making sure European industry is powered by renewable energy? By not treating refugees like cattle? By making sure inmates have a chance to reintegrate into society, unlike the US who treats criminals as a pest? By ensuring American corporations follow European regulations when offering services to European consumers?

Can't think of a single instance where EU "fucked over" US in a manner that US was unfairly taken advantage of, really.

Re: EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification

#78

Post by kevin061 »

SllX wrote: post #71
kevin061 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by pissing off you mean "making foreign entities follow European regulations", then, yes. But also, that's exactly what US, China, and Russia do too. Don't break the law. It's simple.

Laws are negotiable between sovereign states representing the business interests of their nations. The EU, not being a nation itself, may not get that part and may have been feeling a little too invincible as a bloc of nations, but they have still basically pissed off most of their larger trading partners and it doesn’t stop there. Qatar is threatening to stop selling LNG over some corporate sustainability directives…

Or we could generate electricity with nuclear, solar, wind, and hydropower.

Well, that's exactly what we're doing.

The sooner EU gets away from fossil fuels we do not have (except NO I suppose), the better for everyone.

Re: EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification

#79

Post by inglor_cz »

joe_mamba wrote: post #61
inglor_cz wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything is a trade-off. Farmers have a lot of influence in the EU. Personally, I think they are already too dominant, for historic reasons. And yes, I get that food is important. Maybe the answer would be to unburden them from European regulations, which are pretty onerous. The few people active in agriculture I know complain about insane paper wars with authorities all the time. One farmer I know got a hefty fine…

>for historic reasons Yes. The need to feed one's self and family is pretty historically important going back since we were primordial organisms to medieval times when if peasants didn't have food they'd riot and behead the king. >European regulations, which are pretty onerous. Onerous regulations that seek to prevent ... checks notes ... the use of slave labor and chemicals that damage human health and the environme…

"The need to feed one's self and family is pretty historically important "

So is, say, the need to defend yourself, but would you be happy about the military holding the same amount of de-facto power in the EU as the farmers do? Or would you consider it excessive?

"the use of slave labor and chemicals that damage human health and the environment."

So, there is no unnecessary regulation in your view? All of them are very virtuous and protect us all against horrible things? And as a consequence, the more, the better?

If so, how come that their level can vary from country A to country B and yet country B doesn't suffer an epidemic of grisly deaths?

Nope, not all regulations are necessary and not every one of them is virtuous and good. Some are just a byproduct of the office needing to show some activity and keeping their budget.

"Sounds like a local council issue to me, not an EU issue."

Because you are uninformed. She wasn't fined by the local council, which DGAF about an improvised shed with no fixed foundation. She was fined by authorities overseeing agricultural regulations, because that shed meant that she exceeded the allowed extent of her facilities for goats by half a square meter. (Five square feet for USians.)

Re: EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification

#80

Post by joe_mamba »

inglor_cz wrote: post #79
joe_mamba wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>for historic reasons Yes. The need to feed one's self and family is pretty historically important going back since we were primordial organisms to medieval times when if peasants didn't have food they'd riot and behead the king. >European regulations, which are pretty onerous. Onerous regulations that seek to prevent ... checks notes ... the use of slave labor and chemicals that damage human health and the environme…

"The need to feed one's self and family is pretty historically important " So is, say, the need to defend yourself, but would you be happy about the military holding the same amount of de-facto power in the EU as the farmers do? Or would you consider it excessive? "the use of slave labor and chemicals that damage human health and the environment." So, there is no unnecessary regulation in your view? All of them are v…

>So, there is no unnecessary regulation in your view?

Why are you making it sound like the issue is binary?

>Some are just a byproduct of the office needing to show some activity and keeping their budget.

Agree.

>She was fined by authorities overseeing agricultural regulations

Were those authorities doing the inspection from the EU or the local nation?

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