All of this talk of tariffs in the headlines caused a decades-old memory to break loose of something called GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. I’ll get back to that in a moment.
What eventually led me to GATT was a post by the Twitter (X) account Zerohedge, reprinting the take of the Dutch company Rabobank on remarks by the European Commission (EU) President Ursala von der Leyen on the Trump tariffs.
Rabobank: “Von der Leyen said that she “agree[s] with President Trump that others are taking unfair advantage of the current rules”, but she seems to think that the Americans shouldn’t have done anything about it, and should have opted instead for another round [of] fruitless talks.”
I don’t think that Rabobank’s summary is fundamentally unfair to von der Leyen’s statement, which can be read here. Don’t ask me why it’s formatted like a bad poem.
If you look past the blather (“We are in this together.” “Our unity is our strength.”) the EU head really does say,
I agree with President Trump, that others are taking unfair advantage of the current rules. And I am ready to support any efforts to make the global trading system fit for the realities of the global economy.
But then later adds,
Let’s move from confrontation to negotiation.
Which brings me to GATT. Here I rely on the narrative from Wikipedia (always dangerous). GATT began after World War II as a multinational effort to reduce tariffs and barriers to international trade. The first round of trade negotiations began in 1947 and included 23 countries.
Over the next 40 years, another 7 rounds followed, with up to 123 countries participating. A ninth round began in 2001 (the Doha round, remember that?) with 159 countries participating. According to Wikipedia, “The round has not yet concluded.” Twenty-five years in, and still no end in sight.
There has been no agreement reached since 2013. But plenty of exceptions have been made for “developing” nations, “undeveloped” nations and exceptions for “cultural” goods and services. All of these exceptions, of course, come at the expense of the world’s largest economy.
Multi-decade negotiations is just a polite word for “no.”
