In previously unreported remarks, the U.S. administration warned Brussels that it will retaliate if Europeans “strong-arm American companies out of the market.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to retaliate against European countries if the EU favors domestic weapons-makers in a drive to rearm the continent.
The U.S. Department of Defense objected to any EU effort to limit American arms-manufacturers’ access to the European market and warned that would trigger a reciprocal response.
The administration made the previously unreported remarks in a contribution to a European Commission consultation earlier this month, after the EU’s executive branch requested feedback from governments and industry on European weapons procurement rules.
Isn’t this the free market they love so much?
Uhm, no. The EU specifically excluding providers based on their location is very much not the free market at work.
(They can get fucked tho, euro products all the way baby)
It’s the EU making the purchase though. Voting with its wallet so to speak. Nobody forces anyone to do anything.
Me not buying McDonald’s is not a distortion of the free market either, just a healthy dietary and monetary decision.
I’d argue that the Trumps implication that the US can disable many of these weapons remotely is already a perfectly valid free market reason to not buy them, I mean who wants a back door built into your self defence apparatus?
Did the president allude to the kill switches in the gear? I missed that, I believe in the kill switches though.
Agreed. Trump has made it clear that Europe needs weapons primarily to defend itself from the USA.
It wasn’t Iran that threatened to invade Greenland. Wasn’t russia financing Canadian separatists and threatening to annex a Nato member.
America is a gangster state. Boycotting the USA is a free-market decision, and the ONLY rational one.
Thats a free market reason not to buy them, but not what is happening. The EU arming initiative stipulates specifically that x% of the procurement must be from EU producers, no? Not free market then.