Citi's weekly European economics note, compiled by a team led by Christian Schulz, argues that rising tariffs put in place by the Trump administration could allow European corporates to gain a competitive advantage over their American counterparts. "Winning the trade war, albeit not from the sidelines anymore, remains a real opportunity for Europe," the team wrote to clients late last week. The team's thesis centers on two arguments. First, the belief that while tariffs will hurt the businesses of European companies in the US, it will allow them to compete more aggressively with American firms in markets like China. Second, that the US will damage its international reputation, allowing the EU to become the global trading partner of choice for major economies. "European companies compete with US firms in key markets such as China and could win market share at the expense of their American counterparts," Citi's analysts wrote.
How Europe could win a trade war against the US - Business Insider
Following the close of a second quarter that will be best remembered by President Trump's vacillations on trade, Axios has dropped a Sunday night bombshell that may spook markets hoping for a respite from the daily escalating trade war rhetoric as the second half of the year begins: White House reporter Jonathan Swan has obtained a copy of a draft bill, purportedly ordered by Trump himself, that would allow the US to "walk away" from its commitments to the World Trade Organization. If passed, the bill (entitled the "United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act") would effectively blow up the WTO, an organization that the US helped create back in the 90s, by allowing Trump to unilaterally ignore the two most important principles: The "Most Favored Nation" (MFN) principle that countries can't set different tariff rates for different countries outside of free trade agreements; "Bound tariff rates" — the tariff ceilings that each WTO country has already agreed to in previous negotiations. "It would be the equivalent of walking away from the WTO and our commitments there without us actually notifying our withdrawal," one anonymous source reportedly told Axios. The bill asks Congress to hand over to Trump unilateral power to ignore WTO rules and negotiate unilateral trade agreements. The leak of the draft bill follows another WTO-related scoop from Axios, published last week, where Swan reported that Trump has repeatedly badgered his aides about pulling the US out of the WTO, which the president has famously criticized as a "disaster".
Axios Leaks Trump Bill To Blow Up World Trade Organization | Zero Hedge