Donald Trump the Megathread part II - mod warnings in OP, Updated 18/03/25

EU Commission saying they are ready to negotiate energy purchases with Trump.

Presumably this is in addition to the zero for zero tariff offer on goods.

Pharma companies warn Trump's tariffs could expedite shift to US, sources say


European pharma companies warned the European Commission president in a meeting on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump's tariffs would expedite the industry's shift away from Europe and toward the United States, two industry sources told Reuters.Pharma trade lobby EFPIA called on EU President Ursula von der Leyen to push for "rapid and radical action" to mitigate the "risk of exodus" to the United States, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to share details on the meeting.

Pharmaceutical exports from Ireland to the US account for between a third and a half of all trade from Dublin to DC.The meeting was attended by the CEOs of some EU-headquartered pharma companies as well as EFPIA and biotech lobby Europabio. In order to stop an exodus of investment and research and development from Europe, executives said the EU needs to make changes to the regulatory framework for the industry to make it more conducive to innovation and strengthen Europe's intellectual property provisions, the sources said.The EFPIA declined to comment.The European industry's demands were not new as EFPIA has repeatedly warned that the pharma sector could lose out to increased competition if the EU does not amend a proposed revamp of laws governing the sector.The United States is the biggest pharma market by sales for all big pharma companies, both US and European headquartered ones. Pharmaceuticals were exempt from the duties Trump announced last week, but he said they will face separate tariffs. While announcing the raft of tariffs, Trump predicted that pharma companies will come "roaring back" to the US, and warning if they don't, "they got a big tax to pay".EU medicine and pharmaceutical product exports to the United States totalled about 90 billion euros in 2023, according to latest Eurostat data. In 2021, North America accounted for 49.1pc of world pharmaceutical sales compared with 23.4pc for Europe, according to the latest statistics available from EFPIA.The European Commission on Monday proposed counter-tariffs of 25pc on a range of US goods, including soybeans, nuts and motorcycles.
Ludwig Burger and Maggie Fick, Reuters
Today12:25 PM

All I wanna know is.....are my energy costs gonna go up, down or be indifferent?

Be indifferent because Europe is already importing gas from US

These are turning out like Canadian “negotiations” where trump takes credit for something already happening

They must be bursting their holes laughing at EU hq

No surprises there, the EU need the LNG after cutting off their gas supplies from Russia. I mean we could have built more solar/wind/hydro but obviously Trumps LNG is seen as a better option

Asian unity didn't last long

He's too busy streaming games he's shite at and getting trolled by teens online.

Your electricity costs are going to go up as every supplier gets paid the highest price per kWh regardless of what they actually want.

If, per kWh, wind costs 10c, solar costs 15c and LNG costs 5c every supplier will be paid 15c wholesale. If the price of LNG jumps to 30c but solar and wind drop in price then the price paid to all 3 wholesalers goes up to 30c.

In short, the more we vary our electricity supply the higher the price we pay

When it comes to oil the price of the US$ is crashing so the price of oil is likewise meaning petrol, diesel and home heating oil should drop

It's South Korea. They are staunch US allies and will absolutely make a deal. You know this.

speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to share details on the meeting

That spokesperson sounds believable alright. I guess if you want honesty at a time like this you can absolutely trust the major corporations to not try and squeeze the trading block leaders for more money. We all know how honest the corporations are in fairness

</sarcasm>

And to add to that, Vietnam is less than a third the population of the US and the GDP per capita is a tenth that of the USA. How can Vietnam have anything but a trade deficit with the USA? No amount of trade is going to equalize that gap.

What about Switzerland? 3% of the population of the USA. How the hell are Switzerland expected to equalize trade figures?

Trump is a conman and this is a shakedown on a worldwide scale of Americans first, and the World second.

The funny thing is 50% of Americans still think the tariffed countries are paying the tariff because they have Fox News on 24/7.

Moronic.

Well shame on them because now they all look like big dirty MAGA heads

the. I’d terms should give us a very good indication of the true MAGA picture if Trump carries on in the same vein

The Pelosi, Sanders and Obama argument is a fallacy too. Fox News have been spouting it for years.

All they suggested was targeting China for the actual things that were costing Americans jobs, like Steel and cars.

Not a blanket tariff. And certainly not a worldwide tariff.

if we lay everything bare and start AT THE START again

. So, on the day of the election for president those who voted for Trump had , at the time a certain idea as to what Trump was going to do as against what Harris was going to do eg bring down the cost of living, clean the swamp, re-energise the rust belt, etc, etc,

Now, TODAY, the same Republican voter - a lot of them anyway- did not envisage for even one second that things would turn out the way they are ie things have turned out the complete opposite to what they thought when they were voting

The Mid Terms should give us a true picture of where the voter will be at then re for or against what Trump is doing