Tariffs aside, regulations mean the EU rarely imports certain US products, such as meat and dairy.
Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://theconversation.com/eu-consumers-dont-trust-us-goods-a-look-into-trumps-trade-deficit-claims-249315
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When i was living in the US because i had to for work none of their olive oil tasted like olive oil. Turns out there was a study that showed that 80% of supermarket olive oil in the US is fake.
Yeah their products are shoddy. You do not sell fake olive oil to a European. Living around the Mediterranean your whole life you learn to tell immediately when someone is fucking with your olive oil.
I mean, my italian friend was telling me how this is also done in Italy. He watched a documentary, and they were mixing olive and colza. So nothing really new. But the new deregulation of the government is worrying.
What I remember was how sweet their may was , yuk.
Yeah, “impure” olive oil is not endemic to America. Adulterating olive oil is big business and Europe isn’t immune. (Though Europe has laws on the subject that the US does not.)
Olive pil wasn’t a thing on the states until the 80’s. We get all the shittiest olive oil that is produced in the Mediterranean because they can sell their inferior products at a markup here.
Consumer behaviour and preferences – on both sides of the Atlantic – play a huge part in the US-EU trade relationship. A trade deficit often reflects differences in production costs and product quality. This suggests that American consumers generally prefer European products over domestic alternatives, while European consumers favour their own products over American ones. The result is a trade deficit in favour of the EU. One major contributing factor, particularly in food exports to the EU, is the bloc’s stringent regulations on agriculture, which the US has repeatedly challenged. These include rules on hygiene and pesticides (known as sanitary and phytosanitary standards, SPS) and geographical indications (GIs). Longstanding and unresolved trade disputes involving agricultural products have limited US exports to the EU, particularly in beef, poultry, and dairy products.
I prefer European imports, whenever possible, but it’s rare, being in a food desert.
US always had lax safety standards for food, but now with FDA being led by a nut job, it will get even worse.
I shop at Costco Japan and I have a feeling the chicken I (soon to be used to) buy comes from the US. Thankfully, the bacon and pork are local or Canadian, the fish local, and I think the cheese is from Korea. Definitely changing my shopping habits.
It’s not just the EU. US safety and standards are a pathetic joke
The times I have learned that a safety standard I have seen or had to follow was just a STATE law and not a FEDERAL LAW has been way too fucking high. But it makes me glad I’m in California and not anywhere else in the US. Just gotta make sure I don’t get food from Fresno.
Meanwhile the number of times i’ve seen people mock CaLiFOrNiA SaFeTy RuLeS is too damned high. Jesus christ
The idiotic “may cause cancer” labels are to blame for that. When warnings are constant and over-the-top, they get ignored. Good ideas often backfire.
the EUs version is cooking warnings
in Australia technically we have to get a licensed electrician to change a light bulb
I can accept when it about messing with the installation but a lightbulb? Those are made to be easy to replace. It’s a screw and a threaded socket, 95% of the case. Unless someone is purposefully trying to do something wrong, the risk close to none.
Yeah even though I’m in the UK I will never eat US chicken. The reason they wash their chicken and eggs is because Salmonella is endemic to US poultry because their standards are so lax they’d rather chemical their chicken than fix the problem. 🤮
I lived in the US and elsewhere, and I also travel. Chicken in the US is at best flavorless. Food overall is of lower quality. Even US brands and fast food chains taste better outside the US.
It’s not exactly that. In the US we insist on perfect, white eggs. No chicken shit or feathers, heaven forfend! Because most Americans have never touched a chicken, let alone seen one.
So we wash hell out of our eggs, which thins the shell, which makes the egg less resistant to bacteria.
Europeans understand that eggs coming from a chicken’s ass sometimes have feathers and poop. Because it do be like that. So they get thicker, tougher, more resilient egg shells.
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The whole trade war circus is just another pathetic narcissist circus. Trump’s tariff tantrums and the EU’s “proportionate response” reek of performative politics. Neither side cares about actual people—just protecting their fragile egos and corporate donors. The deficit numbers? Smokescreens for incompetence. The real issue is that EU consumers don’t want hormone-pumped beef or plastic cheese, and Americans prefer European engineering over their own gas-guzzling relics.
Regulatory theater on both sides masks a deeper rot. The EU’s “precautionary principle” is just protectionism with a fancy name, while the US whines about “unfairness” while subsidizing Big Ag to dump Monsanto corn globally. Neither bloc will admit their systems are broken, clinging to late-stage capitalism’s death spiral.
Trade wars won’t fix this. They’re distractions from the real crisis: a global governance model built on exploitation and denial. But hey, at least the propaganda machines on both sides get fresh content.
Your first paragraph is spot on, but you couldn’t be more wrong about EU regulations. Regulating the safety of food isn’t theater or protectionism, it’s a common sense defense against corporate cost cutting basically poisoning the food supply like in the US.
EU gets a lot of things wrong, but having higher standards for what you’re allowed to sell to consumers as food than the US does is emphatically NOT one of them.
The EU’s so-called “higher standards” are just another layer of bureaucratic theater designed to placate its own citizens while hiding the rot underneath. Sure, they slap a fancy label on their food policies, but it’s not about protecting people—it’s about protecting markets. The precautionary principle? A shield for their agricultural lobby to keep out competition under the guise of safety.
Meanwhile, the US isn’t poisoning anyone; it’s just playing a different game of corporate greed. Both systems are broken, but let’s not pretend one is morally superior. The EU’s smugness over “standards” is laughable when they’re still importing slave-labor goods and dumping waste in Africa.
It’s all hypocrisy dressed up as policy. Don’t buy into their self-righteous propaganda.
The EU’s so-called “higher standards” are just another layer of bureaucratic theater designed to placate its own citizens while hiding the rot underneath
Absolute counterfactual nonsense.
Sure, they slap a fancy label on their food policies, but it’s not about protecting people—it’s about protecting markets.
In the case of protected origin (like how you can’t call it feta if it’s not from Greece and you can’t call it champagne of it’s not from the Champagne district etc), sure.
That’s wholly separate from food safety regulations, though, which are vital for protecting the public from corporations destroying their health.
The precautionary principle? A shield for their agricultural lobby to keep out competition under the guise of safety.
Again, absolute counterfactual nonsense.
Meanwhile, the US isn’t poisoning anyone
Bullshit. Corporations are actively choosing less healthy and more addictive ingredients for their products because they’re allowed to. That’s not even debatable to anyone who’s arguing in good faith and knows the first thing about food safety.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that you’re arguing in bad faith, arguing based on ignorance, arguing based on misinformation, or more than one of the above.
Both systems are broken, but let’s not pretend one is morally superior
I wouldn’t say that the EU is IN GENERAL morally superior, but protecting the public from being poisoned at the whim of cost cutting corporations empirically IS morally superior to not doing so. Only corporations trying not get away with it and the truly deluded would disagree.
The EU’s smugness over “standards” is laughable when they’re still importing slave-labor goods and dumping waste in Africa
While yes, that’s inarguably reprehensible, that has exactly nothing to do with food safety regulations or the lack thereof.
It’s all hypocrisy dressed up as policy
Just stfu already. That the EU does reprehensible things in other areas doesn’t make the concept of food safety regulations a sham. That’s obvious to any honest person not blinded by a binary world view of “either everything they do is good or everything they do is bad”
Counterfactual nonsense? That’s rich coming from someone parroting the EU’s PR like it’s gospel. You think protected origin labels are “wholly separate” from market control? Laughable. They’re literally designed to monopolize markets under the guise of tradition. Keep pretending it’s about safety while ignoring how it stifles competition.
Your corporate poisoning tirade is a joke. The EU imports the same junk, just wrapped in fancier packaging. But sure, let’s blame the US for everything while ignoring Europe’s complicity. That’s some next-level selective outrage.
And your moral superiority shtick? Hilarious. Slave labor and dumping waste don’t magically disappear because you slap a “higher standards” sticker on your policies. Hypocrisy isn’t a virtue, no matter how smugly you wear it.
As for “stfu”? Cute. Resorting to playground insults when your arguments collapse under scrutiny is exactly what I’d expect from someone out of their depth.
So, by your standards you gotta be perfect or the devil themself with no in-between?
Ah, the classic false dichotomy—perfect or devil, no in-between. Convenient oversimplification for someone dodging the actual critique. Standards aren’t about sainthood; they’re about consistency. If you’re going to preach “higher values,” maybe don’t turn a blind eye to the contradictions in your own backyard.
This isn’t about moral absolutism; it’s about calling out hypocrisy masquerading as virtue. If you can’t handle that without retreating into reductive nonsense, maybe rethink engaging in a debate that demands nuance.
And while we’re at it, reducing everything to “standards” doesn’t absolve you from addressing the systemic issues behind them. But sure, keep playing the victim of impossible expectations—it’s easier than grappling with inconvenient truths.
That’s a whole lotta words to say yes
Market control protects the euros from the despicable imperialist genocidal poison-eating yankkkkkkks
I literally laughed at your comment, knowing that even american based food brands selling in Europe manufacture their shit in european soil with different ingredients because lots of the ones they use in USA are forbidden here.
The “user” you’re responding to uses LLMs to generate comments. Look at their profile if you want to see what I mean.
I’ve been noticing their comments on tons of posts recently too. it’s scornful and evocative, and sometimes even poetic, but ultimately it’s all meaningless nonsense.
The irony is thick, isn’t it? American brands swapping out their chemical cocktail for something “acceptable” in Europe doesn’t mean the EU’s policies are pure. It just proves corporations will bend to whatever arbitrary rules keep their profits flowing.
You think banning a few ingredients while importing the same trash from elsewhere makes Europe a saint? It’s theater. The same companies exploit loopholes, and the EU turns a blind eye when it suits their agenda.
Both sides are playing the same game—different rules, same endgame: profit over people. Don’t confuse regulatory posturing with actual ethics.
Lololol
Big paragraph.
I went to Germany, and drank their beer.
It’s just. Better.
Lmao. Well, I can’t argue with that
A shield for their agricultural lobby to keep out competition
Very important for independence
If you agree that the divided States of America are starting bullshit trade wars, how should the EU react in your opinion if the current way is not to your liking and only smokescreen?
Because as far as I understand, the counter tariffs are just the allowed tit for tat reaction in accordance to international trade law.
I mean yes, system change is needed to protect humanity and life on the planet, but as far as the tariffs go… I don’t exactly disagree with the EU way to do it.
