3w ago

EU consumers don’t trust US goods: a look into Trump’s trade deficit claims

theconversation.com EU consumers don’t trust US goods: a look into Trump’s trade deficit claims

Tariffs aside, regulations mean the EU rarely imports certain US products, such as meat and dairy.

Tariffs aside, regulations mean the EU rarely imports certain US products, such as meat and dairy.

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://theconversation.com/eu-consumers-dont-trust-us-goods-a-look-into-trumps-trade-deficit-claims-249315

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

52 comments

When i was living in the US because i had to for work none of their olive oil tasted like olive oil. Turns out there was a study that showed that 80% of supermarket olive oil in the US is fake.
Yeah their products are shoddy. You do not sell fake olive oil to a European. Living around the Mediterranean your whole life you learn to tell immediately when someone is fucking with your olive oil.
- I mean, my italian friend was telling me how this is also done in Italy. He watched a documentary, and they were mixing olive and colza. So nothing really new. But the new deregulation of the government is worrying.
  What I remember was how sweet their may was , yuk.
  
  Yeah, "impure" olive oil is not endemic to America. Adulterating olive oil is big business and Europe isn't immune. (Though Europe has laws on the subject that the US does not.)
- Olive pil wasn't a thing on the states until the 80's. We get all the shittiest olive oil that is produced in the Mediterranean because they can sell their inferior products at a markup here.

Consumer behaviour and preferences – on both sides of the Atlantic – play a huge part in the US-EU trade relationship. A trade deficit often reflects differences in production costs and product quality. This suggests that American consumers generally prefer European products over domestic alternatives, while European consumers favour their own products over American ones. The result is a trade deficit in favour of the EU. One major contributing factor, particularly in food exports to the EU, is the bloc’s stringent regulations on agriculture, which the US has repeatedly challenged. These include rules on hygiene and pesticides (known as sanitary and phytosanitary standards, SPS) and geographical indications (GIs). Longstanding and unresolved trade disputes involving agricultural products have limited US exports to the EU, particularly in beef, poultry, and dairy products.
I prefer European imports, whenever possible, but it's rare, being in a food desert.
- US always had lax safety standards for food, but now with FDA being led by a nut job, it will get even worse.
  
  I shop at Costco Japan and I have a feeling the chicken I (soon to be used to) buy comes from the US. Thankfully, the bacon and pork are local or Canadian, the fish local, and I think the cheese is from Korea. Definitely changing my shopping habits.

It's not just the EU. US safety and standards are a pathetic joke
- The times I have learned that a safety standard I have seen or had to follow was just a STATE law and not a FEDERAL LAW has been way too fucking high. But it makes me glad I'm in California and not anywhere else in the US. Just gotta make sure I don't get food from Fresno.
  
  Meanwhile the number of times i've seen people mock CaLiFOrNiA SaFeTy RuLeS is too damned high. Jesus christ

Yeah even though I'm in the UK I will never eat US chicken. The reason they wash their chicken and eggs is because Salmonella is endemic to US poultry because their standards are so lax they'd rather chemical their chicken than fix the problem. 🤮
- I lived in the US and elsewhere, and I also travel. Chicken in the US is at best flavorless. Food overall is of lower quality. Even US brands and fast food chains taste better outside the US.
- It's not exactly that. In the US we insist on perfect, white eggs. No chicken shit or feathers, heaven forfend! Because most Americans have never touched a chicken, let alone seen one.
  So we wash hell out of our eggs, which thins the shell, which makes the egg less resistant to bacteria.
  Europeans understand that eggs coming from a chicken's ass sometimes have feathers and poop. Because it do be like that. So they get thicker, tougher, more resilient egg shells.

Is anyone else having issues with the archived link?
- It looks like nobody yet archived it. You can click archive this url to do that yourself.

The whole trade war circus is just another pathetic narcissist circus. Trump’s tariff tantrums and the EU’s “proportionate response” reek of performative politics. Neither side cares about actual people—just protecting their fragile egos and corporate donors. The deficit numbers? Smokescreens for incompetence. The real issue is that EU consumers don’t want hormone-pumped beef or plastic cheese, and Americans prefer European engineering over their own gas-guzzling relics.
Regulatory theater on both sides masks a deeper rot. The EU’s “precautionary principle” is just protectionism with a fancy name, while the US whines about “unfairness” while subsidizing Big Ag to dump Monsanto corn globally. Neither bloc will admit their systems are broken, clinging to late-stage capitalism’s death spiral.
Trade wars won’t fix this. They’re distractions from the real crisis: a global governance model built on exploitation and denial. But hey, at least the propaganda machines on both sides get fresh content.
- Your first paragraph is spot on, but you couldn't be more wrong about EU regulations. Regulating the safety of food isn't theater or protectionism, it's a common sense defense against corporate cost cutting basically poisoning the food supply like in the US.
  EU gets a lot of things wrong, but having higher standards for what you're allowed to sell to consumers as food than the US does is emphatically NOT one of them.
  
  The EU’s so-called “higher standards” are just another layer of bureaucratic theater designed to placate its own citizens while hiding the rot underneath. Sure, they slap a fancy label on their food policies, but it’s not about protecting people—it’s about protecting markets. The precautionary principle? A shield for their agricultural lobby to keep out competition under the guise of safety.
  Meanwhile, the US isn’t poisoning anyone; it’s just playing a different game of corporate greed. Both systems are broken, but let’s not pretend one is morally superior. The EU’s smugness over “standards” is laughable when they’re still importing slave-labor goods and dumping waste in Africa.
  It’s all hypocrisy dressed up as policy. Don’t buy into their self-righteous propaganda.
- If you agree that the divided States of America are starting bullshit trade wars, how should the EU react in your opinion if the current way is not to your liking and only smokescreen?
  Because as far as I understand, the counter tariffs are just the allowed tit for tat reaction in accordance to international trade law.
  I mean yes, system change is needed to protect humanity and life on the planet, but as far as the tariffs go... I don't exactly disagree with the EU way to do it.
  
  The EU’s reaction is just as performative as the U.S.’s instigation. Tariffs are legal under international trade law, sure, but legality doesn’t equal wisdom. It’s a tit-for-tat game that ignores the systemic rot underneath. Both sides are propping up industries that should have been restructured decades ago, clinging to outdated economic paradigms.
  The current system isn’t about protecting humanity or the planet—it’s about preserving power structures. The EU’s “precautionary principle” and the U.S.’s subsidy circus are just different flavors of the same poison: corporate welfare masquerading as public interest.
  Real change would mean dismantling these systems, not playing within their rules. But let’s be honest—neither bloc has the stomach for that kind of upheaval. They’ll just keep trading blows while the world burns.

52 comments