President Donald Trump has announced he plans to increase a tariff on cars and trucks imported from the European Union effective next week, a move that could jolt the world economy at a fragile moment. “I am pleased to announce that, based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to trade deal, next week I will be increasing tariffs charged to the European Union for cars and trucks coming into the United States. The tariff will be increased to 25%,” he wrote Friday. “It is fully understood and agreed that, if they produce cars and trucks in U.S.A. plants, there will be NO TARIFF.” Trump did not elaborate on his specific grievances over the EU and their supposed noncompliance with the trade deal. It comes despite an agreement reached last July between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which established a 15% tariff on the majority of goods.
For a little while now I’ve wanted to ask my representatives why there’s no sanctions on Trump yet, and if any are planned. These new tariffs certainly show appeasement or defusion doesn’t work. All while we’re losing much more in terms of international rule of law and the incoming long term impacts.
They’re probably hesitant/refusing sanctions because we’re so connected to the US, economically and politically. But seeing the US government violate international law and no consequences being taken like against Russian war-connected people is frustrating to see.
I wonder if Trump wouldn’t be more willing to leave Iran if Europe put more pressure on him.
Write a letter. It need not be long, just a few sentences. The real goal is when staffers compile their reports about what constituents care about this gets on the list, and the larger the number the better.
There are others reasons to write letters. However it is difficult to get your congressman to read and consider a long well written letter - they get so much mail that most of it is handled by staffers. Thus the quick letter with the goal of just getting into the weekly summary of issues is often a good goal, and needs much less effort on your part. If you have the energy to write a long carefully considered letter by all means do - but these are best shared publicly with the goal of getting thousands of people to sign and send a copy (which ensures that it is read because thousands care - but hundreds is not enough to get it past the filter). If you know the congressman personally in some way (including friend of a friend) sometimes you can bypass the process and get things read directly. Townhalls where you can speak for 30 seconds (you should practice and time you 25 second, 55 second, and 2:55 speeches before hand - then depending on the time controls give the correct one - you want to come off as someone who didn’t memorize the speech though despite the practice)