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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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.
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.
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.
