This is the only comment here that matters. Nothing has happened. Nothing will happen, because Trump is going to piss his pants and scream and moan, and then all of his advisors are going to explain to him for the sixteenth time that the only want to cut off trade with Spain is to cut off trade with the entire EU. No more Ferraris and Lambos. No more guns for their Abrams tanks. No more French cheese and wine. No more US trade to a market of 450 million comparatively wealthy people.
Even the actual headline of the article reads “Trump to cut off all US trade with Spain over refusal to use military bases in Iran war”. Because it hasn’t happened yet. And it won’t. It’s just another empty threat from a pathetic, brainless coward.
He actually can implement temporary sanctions but afaik they also fall into another emergency power provision and I don’t know if they can override existing trade deals from congress.
Correct. The USSC rejected his claim to be able to impose unlimited tariffs (under a law that says no such thing), which forced him to then rely on an entirely different law that potentially offers him the ability to impose much more restricted tariffs; 15%, for 90 days, and he has to impose them equally across all trading partners. Which is threatening to upend a bunch of the deals they already made.
It’s also likely not legal either, but it’ll have to go through the courts again. This time around it’s because the law he’s now using only applies where there is a “balance of payments” issue; basically, where the US is in danger of running out of actual physical money to make payments with. This literally cannot happen with fiat currencies; it’s a law that was designed to handle issues that can only occur with precious metal backed currencies. This a very real problem that used to happen. I think the most famous example I can bring to mind is the Opium Wars, which basically happened because Britain was buying so much tea from China, while selling them almost nothing in return, that they were running out silver to pay the Chinese with.
They could always just block everything with Spanish origin. But as long as it doesn’t say Made in Spain or clearly list the original sender, it’s easy to just route it through another EU country. Though that could be seen as avoiding an embargo? Depends on the language used I guess. Obviously the EU would not help him enact this blockade.
Doesn’t matter, because if Trump blocks trade with Spain, EU law requires that they shut down all trade with the US, period. Unified Trade Policy; you don’t get to make individual trade deals with EU member states, and you don’t get to selectively accept or reject trade with EU member states. It’s all or nothing. It would be like someone trying to block all trade with Alabama.
Misleading title as nothing happened yet and AFAIK he can’t. EU is a single economic zone.
This is the only comment here that matters. Nothing has happened. Nothing will happen, because Trump is going to piss his pants and scream and moan, and then all of his advisors are going to explain to him for the sixteenth time that the only want to cut off trade with Spain is to cut off trade with the entire EU. No more Ferraris and Lambos. No more guns for their Abrams tanks. No more French cheese and wine. No more US trade to a market of 450 million comparatively wealthy people.
Even the actual headline of the article reads “Trump to cut off all US trade with Spain over refusal to use military bases in Iran war”. Because it hasn’t happened yet. And it won’t. It’s just another empty threat from a pathetic, brainless coward.
Oh something did happen: he managed to piss off more people or piss them off even more than they were.
US products boycott can only gets worse.
Well, I’ll grant you that.
That aside, his ability to impose tariffs without congress approval was just limited, right?
I’m not a US law expert but it would be weird if he couldn’t set a 20% tariff but was allowed to stop trading with a country completely.
I mean, following that line of reasoning he shouldn’t even be able to wage a war just like that, but humor me here…
He actually can implement temporary sanctions but afaik they also fall into another emergency power provision and I don’t know if they can override existing trade deals from congress.
It was legally limited but he immediately imposed new tariffs anyway.
I thought that was under a different legal pretext that caps them at max 15% and for a limited time
Correct. The USSC rejected his claim to be able to impose unlimited tariffs (under a law that says no such thing), which forced him to then rely on an entirely different law that potentially offers him the ability to impose much more restricted tariffs; 15%, for 90 days, and he has to impose them equally across all trading partners. Which is threatening to upend a bunch of the deals they already made.
It’s also likely not legal either, but it’ll have to go through the courts again. This time around it’s because the law he’s now using only applies where there is a “balance of payments” issue; basically, where the US is in danger of running out of actual physical money to make payments with. This literally cannot happen with fiat currencies; it’s a law that was designed to handle issues that can only occur with precious metal backed currencies. This a very real problem that used to happen. I think the most famous example I can bring to mind is the Opium Wars, which basically happened because Britain was buying so much tea from China, while selling them almost nothing in return, that they were running out silver to pay the Chinese with.
They could always just block everything with Spanish origin. But as long as it doesn’t say Made in Spain or clearly list the original sender, it’s easy to just route it through another EU country. Though that could be seen as avoiding an embargo? Depends on the language used I guess. Obviously the EU would not help him enact this blockade.
Doesn’t matter, because if Trump blocks trade with Spain, EU law requires that they shut down all trade with the US, period. Unified Trade Policy; you don’t get to make individual trade deals with EU member states, and you don’t get to selectively accept or reject trade with EU member states. It’s all or nothing. It would be like someone trying to block all trade with Alabama.
The EU is not going to allow falsified place-of-origin papers.