December 17, 2025 • 16 mins
Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.
On today's podcast:
(1) The Trump administration threatened retaliation against the European Union in response to efforts to tax American tech companies, singling out prominent companies, including Accenture, Siemens and Spotify Technology , as possible targets for new restrictions or fees.
(2) President Donald Trump said he was ordering a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers going into and leaving Venezuela, ratcheting up pressure on Caracas amid a US military buildup in the region and the threat of land strikes.
(3) French President Emmanuel Macron said in a Financial Times op-ed that placing tariffs and quotas on Chinese imports would be “an uncooperative answer” to address its trade imbalance with the European Union.
(4) The UK’s Labour government passed a workers’ rights package that expands protections for employees and achieves a key policy goal of the party’s left.
(5) OpenAI is in initial discussions to raise at least $10 billion from Amazon.com Inc. and use its chips, a potential win for the online retailer’s effort to broaden its AI industry presence and compete with Nvidia.
(6) Jared Kushner’s splashy projects in the Balkans are colliding with the realities of doing business in the region.
Podcast Conversation: High Coffee Prices Are Changing How People Take Their Daily Brew
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is the Bloomberg DAYBAC podcast. Good morning, It's Wednesday,
the seventeenth of December. I'm Caroline Hepkeitt in London and.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I'm Stephen Caroline Brussels. Coming up today, the US identifies
prominent European companies for potential retaliation over the way the
EU treats big tech firms.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
President Trump says he is blocking all sanctioned oil tankers
from entering or leaving Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Plus Jared Kushner's luxury dreams collide with political reality in
the Western Balkans.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Let's start with the roundup of our top stories.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
The Trump administration is threatening retaliation against the EU in
response to efforts to regulate and tax American tech companies,
naming prominent European firms as potential targets.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Bloomberg's Uan Pots has.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
More European efforts to crack down on big tech of
long being in the crossairs of the White House. Now,
the Office of the US Trade Representative says it has
no choice but to begin using every tool at its
disposal to counter what it calls the EU's unreasonable measures.
As issue of policies governing digital commerce, as well as
digital taxes imposed by individual countries. The role call of
(01:17):
European companies named for potential retaliation includes Accenture, Siemens, Spotify, DHL,
SAP and others. In response to the Commission says that
EU is an open market where rules apply equally and
fairly to all companies, but the tensions over tech regulation
and taxes look set to continue to hang over trade
negotiations in London.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
I'm you in pots Spooberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
The price of crude oil has surged after President Trump
said that sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela would
be blockaded. Writing in a social media post, the US
leader added that he is also designating President Maduro's government
a foreign terrorist organization. It's an escalation of the Trump
administration's pressure on Maduro, who they accused of presiding over
(02:05):
a drug trafficking operation. Here is Bloomberg's oil reporter, Nicholas lua.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
Heez threatened a blockade around Venezuela, and I think that's
a big deal because it represents an escalation on earlier
behavior hostile behavior between the US and Venezuela. The US
has earlier seized a oil tanker of Venezuela's cost and
as it is, things are very dicey, and now with
this new social media post and the threel of a
(02:31):
loca it thing, it looks like things are getting even disier.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Bloomberg's Nicholas Lewa speaking there, as the price of both
Brent and West Texas Intermediate both advanced from the lowest
level since twenty twenty one after the US President's comments.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Amazon has in talks to invest ten billion dollars or
more into open Ai in exchange for using its semiconductor chips.
Sources tell Bloomberg talks or at an early stage, but
the deal could value open Ai at more than half
a trillion dollars. In recent months, Wall Street have started
raising alarm bells about the scale of investment into the
AI space and whether it might be a bobble. Representatives
(03:10):
for open Ai and Amazon declined to comment.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Britain's labor government passed its flagship workers' rights package in
a major win for the party's left wing. The bill
entitled workers to stronger protection from unfair dismissal, sick pay,
and parental leave from day one at a new job
and empowers trade unions. Business Minister Kate Diden says it
(03:33):
marks the biggest overhaul of workers rise in Britain in
a generation.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Really really crowd there. As a government, we are delivering
this and really delighted that we are now out of
the parliamentary process and heading towards royal sense so we
can deliver for millions of working people across this country
and upgrade workers rights so it's fit for the twenty
first century.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Did and took over the bill after former Deputy Prime
Minister Angela Rayner resigned from government in the Autumnoi attack scandal.
Rainer is widely seen is a potential successor to Prime
minis a kiss starmer, and this bill was her flagship
piece of legislation.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Britain is sticking to ambitious electric vehicle targets right at
the point where carmakers decide where to invest in their
next factories. The EU announced plans to water down it's
combustion engine phase out planned yesterday. Bloomberg's Climate reporter John
Ainger says it's a bid to protect industry.
Speaker 7 (04:23):
The mood music in Europe, I think has really changed
over the last couple of years. Or so, and there's
been a big push to focus on safeguarding industry and
of industry. Car makers, particularly those in Germany and also
the parts manufacturers that supply all the elements needed to
make cars have really they've really raised like the red flag.
(04:44):
They say that the market is not ready.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
British consumers have embraced evs faster than other European countries,
but with the EU still being the main export market
for British cars, any split in rules adds uncertainty at
a sensitive moment.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Un present, Immanuel macart has told The Financial Times that
he believes tariffs on Chinese exports would be uncooperative. Writing
in an op ed, the French leader argued against using
tariffs and quotas to address the trade imbalance between the
world's second largest economy and the EU. Macro, however, said
(05:21):
that rebalancing is still quote urgently needed, and he called
for measures to be taken on both sides. He added
that the EU must address competitiveness concerns and foster innovation
at home, while China should move towards a more favorable
fiscal policy to promote its domestic spending and bolster investment
(05:42):
in Europe.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Those are your top stories on the markets.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
The msciosh Pacific Index is currently up by three tenths
of one percent, European stock futures pointing a little higher,
up by a ten for euro stocks fifty. At the moment,
we're keeping an eye on those oil prices brankcrewed one
point four percent higher, just below the sixty dollars a
barrel still though the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index two tenths
stronger the euros two tenth weeker at one seventeen twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Now in a moment, we'll bring you more on the
latest spike intentions between the US and the EU, plus
why Jared Kushner's big real estate projects in the Western
Balkans are colliding with the realities of doing business in
the region. But before that, another story is caught all
right today, how much are you willing to pay for
your coffee?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Stephen caroll Well, I mean, it's a question that I
think a lot of people have been thinking about because
of the all of the reporting around the high price
of the commodity coffee. I suppose due to climate and
other issues as well that have made for poor harvest
and hitting supplies too. But our reporters Harry Black and
Lena Pang have been talking about how this is actually
(06:48):
affecting the coffee drinkers and looking at the changing habits
that people are, I suppose, adapting to this new trend,
like making coffee more at home. For example, They point
to a city group survey from trees around the world
from the US to Thailand showing that thirty seven percent
of people are making more coffee at home, and those
that aren't already doing so two thirds of them said
(07:08):
that they plan to in the next twelve months. As
well as the sales of coffee machines, there are people
are buying more order to home beans, for example in
the US, it's meant more people going to drive through locations.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Where it's cheaper to buy a cup of coffee too.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
But I suppose that the take The part that I'm
taking away from this is that people aren't giving up
coffee because it's more expensive. They're just choosing different ways
to try and source it, which I think is probably
a bit concerning. At the same time, kind of this
is your big moment, does lobby everyone to move to tea?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, exactly. My countertops in my kitchen is totally clear.
Does this mean I'm going to end up with a massive,
fancy coffee machine I have resisted so far. Yeah, I'm
not a coffee drinker. Anyone who comes into the radio
studio in London knows that it's al grade tea. Yes,
you have to join me. Lovely story though, But it's
not just coffee, is it. I mean there are other
(07:56):
commodities that have risen in price. I mean, I'm far
more fascinated by the rise in cocoa beam prices.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
This affects me much more.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I think exactly if you were chocolate decorations on the
Christmas tree this year, I think as well. But I mean,
how consumers are adapting to persistent inflation is a theme
that we've been talking about all years. So great to
see our colleagues reporting there on what's happening to coffee drinkers.
Let's bring you more out though, on the latest trade
tensions between the EU and the United States. The Trump
(08:24):
administration is threatening to retaliate against European companies for their
efforts to tax American ferns. Our Chief Hero correspondent Oliver
Crooks with me in studio for more this morning. Oliver,
what are first of all, the measures that the US
is complaining about here and what is the Trump administration
saying about how it's planning to respond.
Speaker 8 (08:41):
So they're taking aim of this idea of the digital taxes,
which are not levied across the EU at the moment,
but there are individual countries within Europe that do that. France,
for example, does target that in terms of ad revenues
from a lot.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Of these tech companies.
Speaker 8 (08:53):
But it's not just about the digital tax right, that's
just one of the vast array of sort of non
tariff barriers that the United States is always talking about
within Europe. So it's a very sort of wide range
of things. It's not just taxes, it fines. For example,
Antitrust finds that the EU can levy against these massive
US tech companies, and the United States has aired their
displeasure a great many times on this particular topic, but
it doesn't always get pursued or sort of taken anywhere.
(09:15):
And so now we've heard from Jamison Greer from the
US Trade Representative's Office coming out on Twitter very sort
of emphatically saying that the European Union and certain U
member states have persisted in continuing a course of discriminatory
and harassing lawsuits, taxes finds directives against US service providers
and that basically if they don't stop doing this, not
only are they going to target EU companies, they've listed
(09:37):
into companies that they're going to target. They're going to
be Accenturemideis, cap, Gemini, DHL, Mistral public SAP, Ziemans and Spotify.
So in that list you have mostly German and French companies,
a couple of others in there, so you know where
your butter bread is butter in terms of the power
within the EU, and saying that the United States will
have no choice but to begin using every tool at
its disposal to counter these unreasonable measures and should responsive
(10:01):
measures be necessary, the US law permits an assessment of
fees or restrictions on foreign services, among other actions. The
point that they make is basically, the US market is
fully open for European service providers. The European is not,
and that is what they're trying to take issue with.
Of course, the Trump administration is one that sees itself
as particularly aggrieved by the EU.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, it's notable though that the EU uses language around fairness,
things being fair and a focus on consumers.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
How has the EU responded.
Speaker 8 (10:30):
Yeah, you won't be surprised to learn that the US
actually has a response to that too, right. The point
that they make is that though that the U and
as we spoke to Marsefkovic earlier this week and you know,
saying that basically all of these laws are applied fairly
and universally to any business that's operating within the EU.
They're not discriminatory against the United States. But what the
United States will say is that effectively, if you have
(10:51):
a speed limit on a road of one hundred and
fifteen miles per hour and only American cars go up
to one hundred and fifty miles per hour, you're effectively
targeting American cars. And that is what they're saying basically
about these tech regulations, because there are no other companies
in the world with the largest scale and the antitrust
concerns that a lot of these American companies have. What's
interesting about what the United States is doing is they're
linking these sort of digital taxes also with the other
(11:13):
parts of the trade deal, so steal in aluminum. Howard
Ludnik last time he was here in Brussels, he said
very explicitly to Bloomberg Television. The only way for you
guys to get these steal and aluminum tariffs down, which
are by the way, at fifty percent, very very elevated,
is to cool it, hit the brakes basically on tech
regulations within Europe, and that is so far with the
Europeans have said that they are not going to do that.
There is a question about if they're going a little
(11:35):
bit less hard on these fines. There's some anecdotal evidence
of that they're not pursuing these American companies quite as hard,
but they're still finding x for example, very recently one
hundred and twenty million dollars, and that has of course
received the iyre from the President and a number of
others in the US.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
This is cited, as you say, in a wider context
of there being a reshaping of EUUs trade relations. We
have the deal that was announced during the summer, another
outline deal from the Trump administration. Negotiations over that are
still continuing. How does this latest threat, I suppose we
can describe it as from the US trade representatives, feed
into the broader conversation about those trade relations.
Speaker 8 (12:11):
I think this highlights a couple of things. Well, one
is this idea of the non tariff barrier, the sort
of amorphist idea of basically anything the US doesn't like
in regard to their corporates will basically be considered a
non tariff trade barrier and as a consequence, will be
brought into a broader discussion about trade negotiations. So from
the European perspective, and again spoke to mar Sefkovich about this,
(12:31):
the Trade commissioner here in Europe earlier on Monday, that
basically the negotiation is never over. It can be reopened,
it can target new things, it can go into a
much wider scope of different sort of ideas that we're
not originally strictly speaking within the trade rubric, and that
is in a constantly evolving process. And then so you
get basically effectively things are never over stealing aluminum, not settled,
(12:52):
pharmaceutical still some major issues. And then of course you
get these sort of complete ambushes and surprises like Switzerland
experience where they thought they had a certain trade tariff
and then they had something completely different. But this is part,
broadly speaking of the Trump strategy. Trump knows that he
has the power in this sort of region, and he
keeps his adversaries or his competitors on their toes by
constantly being sort of unpredictable and being able to morph
(13:15):
the sort of plane of attack.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Ollie, thank you so much for being with us today.
Good to speak to you. That is Archief Europe Correspondent
Oliver Crook. So we'll keep across. Then the latest growing,
it would seem trade tensions between the EU and the US.
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Day Bakeupe coming up after.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
This to the Western Balkans now, where Jared Kushner's splashy
real estate projects are colliding with the realities of doing
business in the region. Affinity Partner is the private equity
fund owned by Donald Trump's son in law, pulled out
of plans to build a Trump Tower and Serbia's capital, Belgrade,
but a different projects in Albania is still going ahead.
Our reporter grayce Akryer joins us now for more grace,
(13:56):
so good to talk to you. Firstly, with the Belgrade project,
what went there well.
Speaker 9 (14:01):
What went wrong in Belgrade is that the project became
deeply politicized. It was promoted as a flagship investment by
Serbian President Alexander Bushich and his pushed through special legislation
to remove obstacles, including stripping protections from the site. That
approach reignited protests that had already been going on for
(14:22):
more than a year. In Serbia, things escalated further when
a government official who helped clear the path for the
development was indicted. In response, Affinity Partners, Jared Kushna's private
equity fund, said projects like this should unite rather than divide,
and that it was withdrawing out of respect for the
people of Serbia and the city of Belgrade.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So then that's for the Belgrade project. What is happening
with the Affinity Partners project in Albania.
Speaker 9 (14:52):
In Albania, the project is still moving forward. The government
has approved plans for luxury resort and marinnounced Asa Island,
a former military base. Officials describe it as mission critical
for transforming the country's tourism sector. It is the largest
scale Western foreign investment of Prime Minister Edi Ramas twelve
(15:13):
years in power. The government presents it as part of
rebranding Albania as a destination that can compete with neighboring
Greece and Croatia.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
This is happening, though at the time there are corruption
investigations ongoing across several aspects of public life in Albania.
How does that affect this project in the country's image.
Speaker 9 (15:33):
More broadly, well, Albania is facing a wave of high
level corruption investigations that touch some of its biggest infrastructure projects.
Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Belinda Baluku has been
indicted for aleged violations in public tenders covering projects directly
(15:53):
linked to the island. She's been suspended from her cabinet
roles apart from leaving the country while denying wrongdoings. Albeitian
officials save the resort project itself will continue. At the
same time, the indictment put a spotlight on government and procurement.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the
stories making news from London to Wall Street and beyond.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Look for us on your podcast feed every morning, on Apple,
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Speaker 3 (16:25):
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Speaker 2 (16:31):
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Speaker 4 (16:38):
I'm Caroline Hepka and I'm Stephen Carroll.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you
need to start your day, right here on Bloomberg day
Break Europe
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is the Bloomberg DAYBAC podcast. Good morning, It's Wednesday,
the seventeenth of December. I'm Caroline Hepkeitt in London and.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I'm Stephen Caroline Brussels. Coming up today, the US identifies
prominent European companies for potential retaliation over the way the
EU treats big tech firms.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
President Trump says he is blocking all sanctioned oil tankers
from entering or leaving Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Plus Jared Kushner's luxury dreams collide with political reality in
the Western Balkans.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Let's start with the roundup of our top stories.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
The Trump administration is threatening retaliation against the EU in
response to efforts to regulate and tax American tech companies,
naming prominent European firms as potential targets.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Bloomberg's Uan Pots has.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
More European efforts to crack down on big tech of
long being in the crossairs of the White House. Now,
the Office of the US Trade Representative says it has
no choice but to begin using every tool at its
disposal to counter what it calls the EU's unreasonable measures.
As issue of policies governing digital commerce, as well as
digital taxes imposed by individual countries. The role call of
(01:17):
European companies named for potential retaliation includes Accenture, Siemens, Spotify, DHL,
SAP and others. In response to the Commission says that
EU is an open market where rules apply equally and
fairly to all companies, but the tensions over tech regulation
and taxes look set to continue to hang over trade
negotiations in London.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
I'm you in pots Spooberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
The price of crude oil has surged after President Trump
said that sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela would
be blockaded. Writing in a social media post, the US
leader added that he is also designating President Maduro's government
a foreign terrorist organization. It's an escalation of the Trump
administration's pressure on Maduro, who they accused of presiding over
(02:05):
a drug trafficking operation. Here is Bloomberg's oil reporter, Nicholas lua.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
Heez threatened a blockade around Venezuela, and I think that's
a big deal because it represents an escalation on earlier
behavior hostile behavior between the US and Venezuela. The US
has earlier seized a oil tanker of Venezuela's cost and
as it is, things are very dicey, and now with
this new social media post and the threel of a
(02:31):
loca it thing, it looks like things are getting even disier.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Bloomberg's Nicholas Lewa speaking there, as the price of both
Brent and West Texas Intermediate both advanced from the lowest
level since twenty twenty one after the US President's comments.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Amazon has in talks to invest ten billion dollars or
more into open Ai in exchange for using its semiconductor chips.
Sources tell Bloomberg talks or at an early stage, but
the deal could value open Ai at more than half
a trillion dollars. In recent months, Wall Street have started
raising alarm bells about the scale of investment into the
AI space and whether it might be a bobble. Representatives
(03:10):
for open Ai and Amazon declined to comment.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Britain's labor government passed its flagship workers' rights package in
a major win for the party's left wing. The bill
entitled workers to stronger protection from unfair dismissal, sick pay,
and parental leave from day one at a new job
and empowers trade unions. Business Minister Kate Diden says it
(03:33):
marks the biggest overhaul of workers rise in Britain in
a generation.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Really really crowd there. As a government, we are delivering
this and really delighted that we are now out of
the parliamentary process and heading towards royal sense so we
can deliver for millions of working people across this country
and upgrade workers rights so it's fit for the twenty
first century.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Did and took over the bill after former Deputy Prime
Minister Angela Rayner resigned from government in the Autumnoi attack scandal.
Rainer is widely seen is a potential successor to Prime
minis a kiss starmer, and this bill was her flagship
piece of legislation.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Britain is sticking to ambitious electric vehicle targets right at
the point where carmakers decide where to invest in their
next factories. The EU announced plans to water down it's
combustion engine phase out planned yesterday. Bloomberg's Climate reporter John
Ainger says it's a bid to protect industry.
Speaker 7 (04:23):
The mood music in Europe, I think has really changed
over the last couple of years. Or so, and there's
been a big push to focus on safeguarding industry and
of industry. Car makers, particularly those in Germany and also
the parts manufacturers that supply all the elements needed to
make cars have really they've really raised like the red flag.
(04:44):
They say that the market is not ready.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
British consumers have embraced evs faster than other European countries,
but with the EU still being the main export market
for British cars, any split in rules adds uncertainty at
a sensitive moment.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Un present, Immanuel macart has told The Financial Times that
he believes tariffs on Chinese exports would be uncooperative. Writing
in an op ed, the French leader argued against using
tariffs and quotas to address the trade imbalance between the
world's second largest economy and the EU. Macro, however, said
(05:21):
that rebalancing is still quote urgently needed, and he called
for measures to be taken on both sides. He added
that the EU must address competitiveness concerns and foster innovation
at home, while China should move towards a more favorable
fiscal policy to promote its domestic spending and bolster investment
(05:42):
in Europe.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Those are your top stories on the markets.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
The msciosh Pacific Index is currently up by three tenths
of one percent, European stock futures pointing a little higher,
up by a ten for euro stocks fifty. At the moment,
we're keeping an eye on those oil prices brankcrewed one
point four percent higher, just below the sixty dollars a
barrel still though the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index two tenths
stronger the euros two tenth weeker at one seventeen twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Now in a moment, we'll bring you more on the
latest spike intentions between the US and the EU, plus
why Jared Kushner's big real estate projects in the Western
Balkans are colliding with the realities of doing business in
the region. But before that, another story is caught all
right today, how much are you willing to pay for
your coffee?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Stephen caroll Well, I mean, it's a question that I
think a lot of people have been thinking about because
of the all of the reporting around the high price
of the commodity coffee. I suppose due to climate and
other issues as well that have made for poor harvest
and hitting supplies too. But our reporters Harry Black and
Lena Pang have been talking about how this is actually
(06:48):
affecting the coffee drinkers and looking at the changing habits
that people are, I suppose, adapting to this new trend,
like making coffee more at home. For example, They point
to a city group survey from trees around the world
from the US to Thailand showing that thirty seven percent
of people are making more coffee at home, and those
that aren't already doing so two thirds of them said
(07:08):
that they plan to in the next twelve months. As
well as the sales of coffee machines, there are people
are buying more order to home beans, for example in
the US, it's meant more people going to drive through locations.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Where it's cheaper to buy a cup of coffee too.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
But I suppose that the take The part that I'm
taking away from this is that people aren't giving up
coffee because it's more expensive. They're just choosing different ways
to try and source it, which I think is probably
a bit concerning. At the same time, kind of this
is your big moment, does lobby everyone to move to tea?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, exactly. My countertops in my kitchen is totally clear.
Does this mean I'm going to end up with a massive,
fancy coffee machine I have resisted so far. Yeah, I'm
not a coffee drinker. Anyone who comes into the radio
studio in London knows that it's al grade tea. Yes,
you have to join me. Lovely story though, But it's
not just coffee, is it. I mean there are other
(07:56):
commodities that have risen in price. I mean, I'm far
more fascinated by the rise in cocoa beam prices.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
This affects me much more.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I think exactly if you were chocolate decorations on the
Christmas tree this year, I think as well. But I mean,
how consumers are adapting to persistent inflation is a theme
that we've been talking about all years. So great to
see our colleagues reporting there on what's happening to coffee drinkers.
Let's bring you more out though, on the latest trade
tensions between the EU and the United States. The Trump
(08:24):
administration is threatening to retaliate against European companies for their
efforts to tax American ferns. Our Chief Hero correspondent Oliver
Crooks with me in studio for more this morning. Oliver,
what are first of all, the measures that the US
is complaining about here and what is the Trump administration
saying about how it's planning to respond.
Speaker 8 (08:41):
So they're taking aim of this idea of the digital taxes,
which are not levied across the EU at the moment,
but there are individual countries within Europe that do that. France,
for example, does target that in terms of ad revenues
from a lot.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Of these tech companies.
Speaker 8 (08:53):
But it's not just about the digital tax right, that's
just one of the vast array of sort of non
tariff barriers that the United States is always talking about
within Europe. So it's a very sort of wide range
of things. It's not just taxes, it fines. For example,
Antitrust finds that the EU can levy against these massive
US tech companies, and the United States has aired their
displeasure a great many times on this particular topic, but
it doesn't always get pursued or sort of taken anywhere.
(09:15):
And so now we've heard from Jamison Greer from the
US Trade Representative's Office coming out on Twitter very sort
of emphatically saying that the European Union and certain U
member states have persisted in continuing a course of discriminatory
and harassing lawsuits, taxes finds directives against US service providers
and that basically if they don't stop doing this, not
only are they going to target EU companies, they've listed
(09:37):
into companies that they're going to target. They're going to
be Accenturemideis, cap, Gemini, DHL, Mistral public SAP, Ziemans and Spotify.
So in that list you have mostly German and French companies,
a couple of others in there, so you know where
your butter bread is butter in terms of the power
within the EU, and saying that the United States will
have no choice but to begin using every tool at
its disposal to counter these unreasonable measures and should responsive
(10:01):
measures be necessary, the US law permits an assessment of
fees or restrictions on foreign services, among other actions. The
point that they make is basically, the US market is
fully open for European service providers. The European is not,
and that is what they're trying to take issue with.
Of course, the Trump administration is one that sees itself
as particularly aggrieved by the EU.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, it's notable though that the EU uses language around fairness,
things being fair and a focus on consumers.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
How has the EU responded.
Speaker 8 (10:30):
Yeah, you won't be surprised to learn that the US
actually has a response to that too, right. The point
that they make is that though that the U and
as we spoke to Marsefkovic earlier this week and you know,
saying that basically all of these laws are applied fairly
and universally to any business that's operating within the EU.
They're not discriminatory against the United States. But what the
United States will say is that effectively, if you have
(10:51):
a speed limit on a road of one hundred and
fifteen miles per hour and only American cars go up
to one hundred and fifty miles per hour, you're effectively
targeting American cars. And that is what they're saying basically
about these tech regulations, because there are no other companies
in the world with the largest scale and the antitrust
concerns that a lot of these American companies have. What's
interesting about what the United States is doing is they're
linking these sort of digital taxes also with the other
(11:13):
parts of the trade deal, so steal in aluminum. Howard
Ludnik last time he was here in Brussels, he said
very explicitly to Bloomberg Television. The only way for you
guys to get these steal and aluminum tariffs down, which
are by the way, at fifty percent, very very elevated,
is to cool it, hit the brakes basically on tech
regulations within Europe, and that is so far with the
Europeans have said that they are not going to do that.
There is a question about if they're going a little
(11:35):
bit less hard on these fines. There's some anecdotal evidence
of that they're not pursuing these American companies quite as hard,
but they're still finding x for example, very recently one
hundred and twenty million dollars, and that has of course
received the iyre from the President and a number of
others in the US.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
This is cited, as you say, in a wider context
of there being a reshaping of EUUs trade relations. We
have the deal that was announced during the summer, another
outline deal from the Trump administration. Negotiations over that are
still continuing. How does this latest threat, I suppose we
can describe it as from the US trade representatives, feed
into the broader conversation about those trade relations.
Speaker 8 (12:11):
I think this highlights a couple of things. Well, one
is this idea of the non tariff barrier, the sort
of amorphist idea of basically anything the US doesn't like
in regard to their corporates will basically be considered a
non tariff trade barrier and as a consequence, will be
brought into a broader discussion about trade negotiations. So from
the European perspective, and again spoke to mar Sefkovich about this,
(12:31):
the Trade commissioner here in Europe earlier on Monday, that
basically the negotiation is never over. It can be reopened,
it can target new things, it can go into a
much wider scope of different sort of ideas that we're
not originally strictly speaking within the trade rubric, and that
is in a constantly evolving process. And then so you
get basically effectively things are never over stealing aluminum, not settled,
(12:52):
pharmaceutical still some major issues. And then of course you
get these sort of complete ambushes and surprises like Switzerland
experience where they thought they had a certain trade tariff
and then they had something completely different. But this is part,
broadly speaking of the Trump strategy. Trump knows that he
has the power in this sort of region, and he
keeps his adversaries or his competitors on their toes by
constantly being sort of unpredictable and being able to morph
(13:15):
the sort of plane of attack.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Ollie, thank you so much for being with us today.
Good to speak to you. That is Archief Europe Correspondent
Oliver Crook. So we'll keep across. Then the latest growing,
it would seem trade tensions between the EU and the US.
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Day Bakeupe coming up after.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
This to the Western Balkans now, where Jared Kushner's splashy
real estate projects are colliding with the realities of doing
business in the region. Affinity Partner is the private equity
fund owned by Donald Trump's son in law, pulled out
of plans to build a Trump Tower and Serbia's capital, Belgrade,
but a different projects in Albania is still going ahead.
Our reporter grayce Akryer joins us now for more grace,
(13:56):
so good to talk to you. Firstly, with the Belgrade project,
what went there well.
Speaker 9 (14:01):
What went wrong in Belgrade is that the project became
deeply politicized. It was promoted as a flagship investment by
Serbian President Alexander Bushich and his pushed through special legislation
to remove obstacles, including stripping protections from the site. That
approach reignited protests that had already been going on for
(14:22):
more than a year. In Serbia, things escalated further when
a government official who helped clear the path for the
development was indicted. In response, Affinity Partners, Jared Kushna's private
equity fund, said projects like this should unite rather than divide,
and that it was withdrawing out of respect for the
people of Serbia and the city of Belgrade.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So then that's for the Belgrade project. What is happening
with the Affinity Partners project in Albania.
Speaker 9 (14:52):
In Albania, the project is still moving forward. The government
has approved plans for luxury resort and marinnounced Asa Island,
a former military base. Officials describe it as mission critical
for transforming the country's tourism sector. It is the largest
scale Western foreign investment of Prime Minister Edi Ramas twelve
(15:13):
years in power. The government presents it as part of
rebranding Albania as a destination that can compete with neighboring
Greece and Croatia.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
This is happening, though at the time there are corruption
investigations ongoing across several aspects of public life in Albania.
How does that affect this project in the country's image.
Speaker 9 (15:33):
More broadly, well, Albania is facing a wave of high
level corruption investigations that touch some of its biggest infrastructure projects.
Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Belinda Baluku has been
indicted for aleged violations in public tenders covering projects directly
(15:53):
linked to the island. She's been suspended from her cabinet
roles apart from leaving the country while denying wrongdoings. Albeitian
officials save the resort project itself will continue. At the
same time, the indictment put a spotlight on government and procurement.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the
stories making news from London to Wall Street and beyond.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Look for us on your podcast feed every morning, on Apple,
Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
You can also listen live each morning on London DAB Radio,
the Bloomberg Business app, and Bloomberg dot Com.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Our flagship New York station is also available on your
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Speaker 4 (16:38):
I'm Caroline Hepka and I'm Stephen Carroll.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you
need to start your day, right here on Bloomberg day
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