The World No Longer Takes Trump Seriously

[Prairie Gates]

1. Gone almost without notice in the US press: the EU and Mercosur are at threshold of a deal

Mercosur is comprised of the big economies of Latin America. They've been trying to craft an acceptable free trade deal with the EU for over two decades. The other day it cleared its next to last hurdle, and it looks like the agricultural and environmental hold-outs are going to sign on (the big one being France, which was concerned about protecting its farmers).

That this is an endrun around US tariff policies for all involved is clear enough: they are reducing tariffs to 0 on a massive slate of items. The EU and Mercosur countries are essentially finding ways to avoid having to deal with US markets, or to significantly reduce dependence on them. To be fair, there's also a desire on the part of the EU to reduce tech infrastructure (battery) dependence on China.

Apart from a few desultory Reuters stories, this massive development has been all but ignored in the US press. Now, it has not been completely finalized yet, but it really looks likely to pass now after 25 years of hand-wringing. I mean, thanks, Trumpy! Way to create trading blocs that really want to avoid US markets! Nice job, buddy.