“I think right now if Donald Trump invented a cure for the common cold, they would still find a reason to criticize him,” British politician Nigel Farage told Fox & FriendsSunday, commenting on what he considered the hypocritical opposition of the European Union to President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
Farage, the former head of Britain’s Independence Party, was a leading proponent of the ultimately successful Brexit — Britain’s decision to exit the European Union. In the Fox & Friends interview, Farage accused the EU of having already imposed its own tariffs on steel and other products coming from the United States. “Thank goodness, a world leader is calling out the European Union. When Trump announced 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum as tariffs, the European Union were the loudest critics in the world, saying how dreadful it was — without telling anybody they already put tariffs on aluminum and steel and on virtually every American product that comes into Europe,” Farage said.
“So, they’re guilty, the European Union, of gross hypocrisy,” Farage added.
Farage is right. Despite the rhetoric of “free trade,” the facts are that other nations loudly voice their opposition to protective tariffs while quietly practicing their own forms of protectionism. In a recent column, Pat Buchanan offered the EU as a prime example of this hypocrisy, noting that EU nations impose a value-added tax (VAT) on imports from America, “While rebating the VAT on exports to the USA.” Buchanan said that this use of the VAT “works just like a tariff.”
Today, the EU imposes a 10-percent tariff on U.S. cars, while the United States imposes a much lower 2.5 percent tariff on EU cars.
Farage’s criticisms of the EU went far beyond their hypocritical trade policies with the United States, however. “The European Union is a club run by unelected bureaucrats, bullies — and they’re used to getting their own way. And this story at the moment is being portrayed as Trump is a bad guy, the European Union is the good guys. Trump is the protectionist. The European Union are the free traders.”
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