this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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Tariff! (aussie.zone)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 276 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (7 children)

This seems to be referencing Regulation (EU) 654/2014, an EU law which allows the EU to unilaterally enact countermeasures against countries that break the WTO's rules.

The countermeasures listed in article 5 are:

  • Imposing tarriffs and customs duties
  • Trade restrictions/quotas
  • Cancelling contracts between the EU and the target country
  • Cancelling the target country's intellectual property rights (e.g. patents/copyrights)
  • Banning public procurement from the target country
  • Implementing price penalties for public procurement from the target country

The law was amended in Regulation (EU) 2021/167 in response to the Trump (and now Biden) administrations blocking the appointment of judges to the WTO and using a loophole to kill the WTO's enforcement mechanism.

More context from the EU parliament:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2020/652021/EPRS_BRI(2020)652021_EN.pdf

The fact that the EU can just suspend American patents and copyrights is pretty insane. Could be some huge benefits for European companies and movie pirates.

[–] [email protected] 200 points 2 months ago (2 children)

❤️“Cancelling the target country's intellectual property rights” ❤️

[–] [email protected] 113 points 2 months ago (4 children)

If EU did that, it would probably result in equal retaliation. It would mean that all patents and IP would become local. Stealing these things from others continents would become fair game, which would make patents and IP almost completely pointless.

Could we please try that out? Sounds like an interesting scenario.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Stop, I can only get so erect!

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

Right? That’s not a threat. Lol

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

"Please, God, it would be so fucking funny"

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Parents and IP would become local

You're telling me we could have more diverse innovation that catered to the needs of individuals if we allowed people to create tools that help them and their neighbors instead of saying "some guy decided a hundred years ago, on the other side of the planet, that this is what this tool looked like. If you call something else by this name we'll sue you and if you call something that looks like this something else we'll sue you for that too"?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No, because someone else will file for the exact same patent locally at the exact moment the law is invoked.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Can you imagine how much harder it would be to be a corrupt asshole if instead of screwing over millions unnamed people, you had to go and look all 30 of the relevant people in your life in the face and go "I wanna suck the money out of you by becoming the sole proprietor of this tool"?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The EU represents roughly 450 million people. I can hardly think of a patent that might affect only 30 people, given this number.

Also, psychopaths exist on either side of the Atlantic.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

That's kind of part of my point. Make it even more local than the EU. Make it local to your town or even smaller

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Literally the best thing that could happen to the world

[–] [email protected] 79 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The EU about to unleash the pirate parties on the US

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Trump really does feel like what you get if you download "strong_president.mp3" off of livewire

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

strong_president.mp3.exe

[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for context!

I hope that as soon as the US will act more iffy, these countermeasures will kick in, as even the US should know then that they aren't all mighty.

I don't know if you have more info, but are these measures reversible or absolute?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 months ago

The regulation text says that the measures are enacted by the European Commission putting out an implementing act. Article 7 says that they may repeal the implementation if the third country resolves the conflict. So it seems that they can only remove the measures if the third country gives up.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

There's also other fun regulations like it being illegal for EU companies to comply with US sanctions on Cuba. If they ever hit a roadblock of any kind they're required to contact the EU commission who will help out in the form of civil servants specialised in sanction busting.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

the EU can just suspend American patents and copyrights

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Heads up that last link is broken.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Ah thank you, fixed now.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

This feels like parental punishment and I'm all for it. lol

[–] [email protected] 115 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I just realized that I had forgotten about polandball and now I miss it.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

[email protected]: 273 subscribers
[email protected]: 110
[email protected]: 51
[email protected]: 4

Given .world is a huge instance I vote for .ee. Go subscribe and post!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's weird, your message says .world has 273 subscribers, but if I open the sidebar it says 0.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Maybe noone from startrek.website is subscribed there? Lemmy is lazy when it comes to these kinds of things, not caring to keep up with foreign communities if noone is interested.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Me too!

Now I wonder about the etymology of polandball ...

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well you see, they took the flag of Poland, and drew it as a ball

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Now do Kazakhstanbrick!

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Is EU not tariffed yet?

[–] [email protected] 75 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Probably won’t be either! The original purpose of our alliance was precisely so that our very small and smallish countries wouldn’t be fucked by economic superpowers!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Hope Mercosur get to that level kn my lifetime

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 months ago (1 children)

nope

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago

It's not morning yet

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