Donald Trump’s announcement of tariffs on EU products was met with outrage from Ursula von der Leyen and European elites and appears to have sparked a veritable trade war, with both sides brandishing the threat of further tariffs. But in a long, detailed – and quite funny – article for the German collective blog Achse des Guten (Axis of Good), the consultant and commentator Michael Alberts argues that the only reason there has not been a trade war much earlier is because the US was not fighting back. Donald Trump is right. The EU started the war by imposing tariffs and all sorts of other encumbrances on US (and other foreign) products.

Using a traditional German saying, Alberts wryly observes that when the Europeans point the finger at Trump, “three fingers of their hand are pointing back at them”. He notes that the EU’s notoriously complex web of regulations already represents a massive trade barrier for non-EU manufacturers, who often would need to alter their products even just to enter the EU market. But EU protectionism is also more explicit. Alberts explains:

Read more: The EU Has Been Imposing Tariffs on American Products for Decades

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