In previously unreported remarks, the U.S. administration warned Brussels that it will retaliate if Europeans “strong-arm American companies out of the market.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to retaliate against European countries if the EU favors domestic weapons-makers in a drive to rearm the continent.

The U.S. Department of Defense objected to any EU effort to limit American arms-manufacturers’ access to the European market and warned that would trigger a reciprocal response.

The administration made the previously unreported remarks in a contribution to a European Commission consultation earlier this month, after the EU’s executive branch requested feedback from governments and industry on European weapons procurement rules.

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  • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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    7 hours ago

    Uhm, no. The EU specifically excluding providers based on their location is very much not the free market at work.

    (They can get fucked tho, euro products all the way baby)

    • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      I’d argue that the Trumps implication that the US can disable many of these weapons remotely is already a perfectly valid free market reason to not buy them, I mean who wants a back door built into your self defence apparatus?

      • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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        1 hour ago

        Thats a free market reason not to buy them, but not what is happening. The EU arming initiative stipulates specifically that x% of the procurement must be from EU producers, no? Not free market then.

      • lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Agreed. Trump has made it clear that Europe needs weapons primarily to defend itself from the USA.

        It wasn’t Iran that threatened to invade Greenland. Wasn’t russia financing Canadian separatists and threatening to annex a Nato member.

        America is a gangster state. Boycotting the USA is a free-market decision, and the ONLY rational one.