UnHerd with Freddie Sayers Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau: Why Europe will lose the trade war
14 snips
May 9, 2025 
Yanis Varoufakis, a former Greek Finance Minister and renowned economist, joins Wolfgang Munchau, Eurointelligence founder, to discuss Europe's precarious position in the escalating trade war with the U.S. and China. They dive into the complexities of post-Brexit trade dynamics and critique the EU's outdated economic strategies. The future of global trade is examined, highlighting the need for reforms in response to rising powers like China. Concerns about Europe's diminishing influence and fragmentation amid global tensions are central to their thought-provoking conversation.
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UK's Strategic Irrelevance
- The UK is strategically irrelevant in the bigger US-EU-China geopolitical chess game.
- Trump's US-UK deal mainly cements Brexit, limiting UK's future EU rapprochement.
Trump Fuels Brexit Divide
- Trump supports Brexit to drive a wedge between UK and EU, complicating EU-US trade deals.
- The UK-US deal includes tariff cuts mainly on cars and aluminum, but the UK must scrap its digital tax as a trade concession.
US Praises Brexit Trade Freedom
- US trade official praises Brexit as enabling UK-US deals, praising UK's freedom on tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers.
- This contrasts with EU’s tighter trade constraints, showing US favouritism for UK's post-Brexit freedom.
