Trump's tariffs drive us to technological development
3' min read
3' min read
In the fairy-tale economic theory that drives the White House, tariffs should contribute to the reindustrialisation of the United States. But in a classic example of the heterogenesis of ends, if we seize the opportunity they could instead stimulate European technological development.
It is well known that Europe's trade surplus in the industrial and agricultural sectors intersects with a deep deficit in the services sector. A significant part of these services - and, as the Draghi report points out, of the competitiveness differential between the US and the EU - is made up of the highest value technology sectors. We sell machines and import cloud computing.
This is why the best response to the US administration's extraordinary act of self-defeat is not to seek symmetrical, duty-for-duty confrontation, but instead, as in jiujitsu, to redirect the opponent's move to one's own advantage. This, for instance, is the case with regard to deepening trade relations between Europe and the rest of the world in response to the US market closure. But the central part of such a strategy lies in developing true European technological sovereignty. In other words, freeing the old continent from the colonisation of American Big Tech.
Our economic prosperity as much as our continental security depends on it. Google and Microsoft now control two thirds of the European cloud computing market.
What would happen if one day, on Donald Trump's orders, they decided to pull the plug or grant US security agencies the right to monitor our companies' data? Or what would happen if platforms like TikTok or X became sites of disinformation and interference with European democratic processes? US Vice-President Vance's recent support for Russian electoral interference in Romania seems to justify just such a scenario. Or just think that until a few weeks ago, Italy was seriously entertaining the idea of entrusting its military satellite communication to Starlink, a private American company run by the erratic and politicised Elon Musk.
