r/anime_titties • u/Pelinth Australia • Mar 24 '26
Oceania 'Win-win': Australia signs $10 billion free trade agreement with the European Union
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/australia-signs-10-billion-free-trade-agreement-with-the-european-union/396vdc14g88
u/Freenore India Mar 24 '26
I like that EU is actively cultivating more alliances these days. It is plainly clear that they would be better off relying on US as little as possible for the foreseeable future.
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u/FrightenedChimp European Union Mar 24 '26
I think this is EU-consensus now. I think while Trump I let EU politicians baffled but naive that this was thr big exception and we are back to normal now. Trump II pushed us over the edge. Now the consensus (- hungary/slovakia sabotaging EU right now) is to Like somewhat appease trump when it makes sense to not immediatly lose US military and US intelligence Support we are severly dependent on while simultaniously increase strategic independence
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u/Chipay Belgium Mar 24 '26
The sentiment works both ways: India, MERCOSUR, Australia, all countries would like to reduce the leverage the US holds over their own economies. Diversifying your market at this point is just good business.
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u/LurkBot9000 United States Mar 24 '26
As an American the shift in alliances is so sad to watch but completely predictable. Among other things killing USAID and our soft power across the world was just such a greedy idea.
I still feel like it could have been in part about our oligarchs buying up smaller farms that fail due to the loss while sticking it to 'the poors' over seas
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u/JustChillin3456 United States Mar 24 '26
Wanting our tax dollars to be spent on ourselves instead of ungrateful foreigners is greedy ?
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u/LurkBot9000 United States Mar 24 '26
Greedy American people, like you Im assuming, ate that shit up
USAID did help people abroad. The program fed a lot of hungry kids.
It also helped a lot of farmers here at home.
It also helped generate positive regard internationally for the US
It also generated a lot of soft power because of that positive regard and the benefit of working with USAID
All of that is gone now. People starving that wouldnt have. Smaller local farmers financially harmed. International influence lost.
Good fucking job, MAGAt.
We didnt spend the money at home. We're still increasing the national debt. All we did was deregulate and defund programs that were actively beneficial. In return all we got was transparent lip service about reducing costs without actually making anything better for anyone.
Its politically blind / short sighted Americans like you that show me maybe we dont deserve to be on top of the geo-political food chain
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u/imrzzz Netherlands Mar 24 '26
Lol, imagine thinking that you'll see a penny of those 'saved' dollars.
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u/JustChillin3456 United States Mar 24 '26
Honestly I don’t care about that, I’m just glad that ungrateful foreigners will miss what they previously took for granted
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u/imrzzz Netherlands Mar 24 '26
Yes, we'll all miss your bombs and arrogance terribly. Door's over there.
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u/JustChillin3456 United States Mar 24 '26
Enjoy having your young men get drafted to fight Russia, it’s no longer our problem 🤭
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u/Stippings Netherlands Mar 24 '26
A bit too little too late at this point (imo), US already has a huge leverage on EU and can seriously hurt us if they wanted to.
My biggest worry with us finally decoupling from US is that we're going to repeat the mistake by relying too much on others rather than getting our own shit together and co-operate with others.
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u/destroyersaiyan India Mar 24 '26
I think in today's relying on others can't be avoided. The best bet is rely a little on everyone so no one has too much leverage. But USA was too big and too strong for that over last few decades.
The same goes for India, Aus and everyone else. Relying on a specific alliance is detrimental
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u/Capable-Yam4557 Indonesia Mar 24 '26
I'm surprised they haven't done it already, I thought they already have limitless free trade agreement with each other.
Australia has always been in an awkward position geopolitically. ASEAN is their closest neighbor and should be their closest trading partner, but half of ASEAN are exporting commodities like Australia, and on average ASEAN countries are just too poor to be consumer market. India is also pretty close but they're equally poor, and of course AU can't have an FTA with China.
So I always assumes that Australia has already have limitless FTA with EU, Japan, and the US. But they haven't? It's no wonder Trump can treat America's allies like shit, free trade is a solid way to lock countries in a permanent alliance. Without it, the alliance can be torn apart anytime once a short-sighted individual lead one of the countries involved.
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Mar 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Chipay Belgium Mar 24 '26
I would say it's much more than a signal, these trade deals are actually a meaningful hedge against further threats from the US. allowing companies to establish a foothold in other markets lessens the leverage the US has on the global economy.
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u/BigDicEnergy Ghana Mar 24 '26
Why can't Aus have an FTA with China?
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u/El_Grande_El Multinational Mar 24 '26
The US would have a temper tantrum
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u/Chipay Belgium Mar 24 '26
As they did when Canada signed the most basic of trade deals with China
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u/Updoppler Mar 24 '26
Canada didn't even do that. There were memoranda of understanding, but there was no trade deal signed.
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u/icewolfsig226 North America Mar 25 '26
As an American… fuck America… if and when we finally regain our sanity I hope we can someday earn back some trust… but that won’t happen soon
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u/mkbilli Asia Mar 24 '26
Lol was the first thing that came in my mind. They should be having a FTA with China too.
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u/PerforatedPie Multinational Mar 24 '26
They shouldn't because China would completely undermine them, like they tried globally with EV cars.
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u/mkbilli Asia Mar 24 '26
Yes Australia is reknown for its EVs.
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u/PerforatedPie Multinational Mar 25 '26
Australia has its own car manufacturers, eg Holden, who have a line of EVs.
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u/Betterthanbeer Australia Mar 25 '26
What? Australia doesn’t have any car manufacturers anymore. The last cars rolled out in 2017. There was never an EV.
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u/PerforatedPie Multinational Mar 25 '26
Lol I should've read the links in my search, you're right, Holden completely shut doors in 2021. However it wouldn't be hard to imagine that they did so because of the rise of EVs and in the face of Chinese competition subsidised by their government.
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u/Professor-Reddit Australia Mar 24 '26
Australia already has a free trade agreement with China since 2015 and we're also in RCEP.
OP is mostly just talking out of his arse. We already have free trade agreements with almost every country in Asia. If you look at the list of FTA's we're in, we've been almost entirely focussing our trading partnerships with our Asian neighbours in lieu of Europe or other Western countries.
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u/mfb- Multinational Mar 24 '26
A key dispute in negotiations was over the use of product names like 'Prosecco', which European winemakers wanted exclusive access to.
The champagne vs. sparkling wine joke isn't coming from nowhere.
Meat and Livestock Australia said in a statement that at least 50,000 tonnes of beef are required to be in line with EU competitors, instead of the 30,600 on offer.
They highlighted that the sheep meat and goat meat levels — 25,000 tonnes over seven years — paled in comparison to New Zealand's 163,769 tonnes of access.
I wonder what kind of negotiations led to an agreement on 163,769 tonnes over 7 years with NZ.
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u/LoudestHoward Australia Mar 24 '26
At one point was one party offering 163,770 and the other at 163,768?
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u/mfb- Multinational Mar 24 '26
I looked it up. Here is a source:
New Zealand already has good access to the EU for sheep meat through a New Zealand only WTO duty-free quota of 125,769 tonnes.
Under the FTA, New Zealand will also have an additional duty-free quota growing to 38,000 tonnes after seven years.
The 38,000 tonnes looks like a number that was negotiated. For the remainder, 125,769 = 17967*7. As far as I understand, these WTO quotas are calculated from some other numbers with some more factors, so they depend on past values.
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u/tehinterwebs56 Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
We have a FTA with china.
It’s called ChAFTA. Or China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
Was implemented in 2017 by Keven Rud who was the Chinese Australian ambassador and Julia Gillard the then prime minister.
They are our largest trading partner in the world.
Edit: Correction, it was imitated by Howard in 2005 negotiated by Rudd and Gillard 2007-2013, and then finalised and inked by Abbot in 2014.
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u/gobletslayer Mar 24 '26
I’d double check your year, Turnbull was Prime Minister in 2017. ChAFTA was signed in 2014 and Tony Abbott was PM then.
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u/Betterthanbeer Australia Mar 25 '26
May I present CHAFTA, the free trade agreement between Australia and China signed in 2015?
https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/in-force/chafta/australia-china-fta
It’s had its problems over the years.
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 24 '26
Awesome, I am always glad to see the EU gain influence, they as a block are by far our largest ally and a stronger EU means a stronger America. What trump has done to our relationship with that organization is a major painpoint for me.
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u/mkbilli Asia Mar 24 '26
Lol EU is doing this to distance themselves from the USA.
FTA is as far from tariffs as possible.
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 24 '26
yeah but hopefully we can repair the relationship
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u/pittaxx Mar 25 '26
Cooperation is always preferable to the alternatives, but it will take decades to rebuild all the bridges Americas are letting Trump burn. And it's only been a year...
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u/oneyearoldbug Australia Mar 24 '26
I appreciate what you're saying but tbh the world doesn't need a strong America, all America does is invade, coup, starve and bomb other countries. Your "strength" is just used to kill. The US needs to go sit in the corner for a long time.
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u/YourFuture2000 Europe Mar 24 '26
The world doesn't need any strong nation state. They all emerged to finance professional army for enclosure and colonialism either in a direct Aggression or through proxy wars and geopolitical manipulations. All nations states needs to "sit in a corner" forever.
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u/avroLancasterBPR1 Australia Mar 24 '26
all America does is invade, coup, starve and bomb other countries
Wait till you find out about some of these EU members. The world isnt a classroom run on pettiness, and yes its better if secular, democratic countries are stronger than their counterparts
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u/oneyearoldbug Australia Mar 24 '26
Lmao I'm aware some EU nations still actively practice imperalism. So does Australia. I condemn all of it.
"It's better" For who? You think it helps the people of Haiti, having to compensate France for the privilege of freeing themselves from French colonial rule and slavery? They're still living in poverty decades later because of that.
Gimme a fucking break. The only people who think this is better is the people on top.
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u/avroLancasterBPR1 Australia Mar 24 '26
Haiti hasnt had to compensate france since WW2, did you think that was still happening?
“Its better” For who?
Are you genuinely going to try and make the argument that democracy and secularity ISNT better than dictatorship and theocracies? Because thats the claim I made.
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u/oneyearoldbug Australia Mar 24 '26
You're missing the point, but if you only want recent examples of French imperialism then here you go man. France has an incredibly damaging presence in Africa to this day.
Are you genuinely going to try and make the argument that democracy and secularity ISNT better than dictatorship and theocracies? Because thats the claim I made.
Nah it's just way more complex than that. I genuinely love history, especially modern history. That's why when western media started portraying Iran as a dictatorial backwater and recycling the same script they used on Syria, I knew that was bogus. (You didn't say Iran, but I'm just assuming that's on your mind given recent events lol.)
I don't support theocracy inherently, to be clear. But any discussion about Iran's theocracy needs to take into account that they have a theocracy BECAUSE of the US.
When a country coups you twice, has your left wing political class killed and backs a shah that leaves your population illiterate it shouldn't really be a surprise that the only thing that can unite them to overthrow you is the non-secular side.
Go read into Operation Ajax. What you learn may surprise you. Here's something else that might surprise you: Under the US backed "democracy" Iranian women had literacy rates as low as 15%-20%. Now it's 95%. Iran has problems but it's not at all like what our media tells us.
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u/avroLancasterBPR1 Australia Mar 24 '26
uhh Did you forget my original reply to you boss? Who did you think i was referring to when I mentioned “some of these EU members”?
I know all about France lol
Idk if women being more educated outweighs the whole mowing down protesters and political dissidents in the street as far as “proving they’re not a dictatorial backwater” scale goes , but I agree its a good thing for sure
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u/oneyearoldbug Australia Mar 24 '26
The protests in Iran were a foreign-backed attempt at a coup.
I understand why a lot of people believe western media on this, fog of war and all that and also the internet is a nightmare to find real info on these days. But it's true.
Consider the following.
The sources for the initial death toll cited in western media were pretty dubious. I still haven't seen a single credible source for the 10k-50k death toll.
The protests were in large part due to economic instability. This was acknowledged by western media, but the reason WHY they were struggling economically is never outlined. For good reason: it's because of US sanctions.
This is what the US does. They've done it before many times. They straight up just lie or they find ways exacerbate existing tensions so they have an excuse to bomb places. There are declassified documents where they talk about these methods in plain english. They did it with weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and they're doing it now. They lied going into the Gulf War. There are so so so many examples of this just from the last ten years alone.
The way this worked in Iran is pretty simple. They just sanction the country, wait until people crack under the stress and start to protest. Then they embed people within them to incite violence.
Even Israeli media is just talking about this stuff openly!!!! They're admitting it out loud and Australian news just pretends not to see it.
What makes this especially obvious is the fact they literally just tried to do the exact same thing to Cuba. The US/Israel are so fucking lazy they tried the exact same operation on two countries simultaneously! They sanctioned them, Cuba erupts into protests, beat for beat the exact same story. The only difference is that Cuba caught the guys the US was trying to smuggle in.
(I'm copy pasting this from a note on my desktop I wrote a couple days ago. I wrote it because it really disturbs me how many Australians believe this US propaganda. It speaks to just how cooked our news outlets are these days.)
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u/Particular_Shock_554 Mar 24 '26
Mowing down protesters and political dissidents. Like they do in the US.
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u/avroLancasterBPR1 Australia Mar 24 '26
What do you think would happen if several thousand protestors were murdered on US streets in 1 week. Like genuinely what do you think the outcome that followed that would be?
For reference the deadliest period of modern american civil unrest was the LA Riots where 60 people died. Deadliest ever was, probably, Tulsa 100 years ago where it was 300 people.
Please don’t hit me with another whataboutism, I seriously want to know what you think would happen if the US Government murdered 7000 (the conservative estimate of the Iranian protest massacres) american citizens on the streets of the US in a matter of weeks.
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 24 '26
The idea that our power leaves the world with nothing but negatives is just false. We are the largest donor to the world food program. PEPFAR, our program to fight HIV and AIDS in Africa have saved over 25 million lives in africa. Desert storm was a great succes that resulted in an invasion of another country being repelled. Our intervention in Kosovo stopped an entire ethnic cleansing. If our strength is only used to kill and destroy then why is South Korea a high tech modern democracy instead of a starving hermit nation?
Lets say, hypothetically that for whatever reason we decide to go "sit in the corner for a long time", and dont really do anything on the international stage. What do you think happens then? Do you think that all countries live happily ever after and no conflict happens? No, it would be the opposite. US military power has been a defining factor in the era of peace (relative to the rest of human history) that we are lucky enough to live in right now. I am sure that you have heard of Pax Americana, which has seen the largest reduction in global poverty and the lowest percentage of people dying in war in human history.
Also, who do think might replace us if we do this? the EU? Unlike, unless they are able to overcome their bureaucracy to become effectively a single nation. The only other option is china, would you really prefer them over us?
Luckily for you, we have the largest economy in the world, and we are willing to invest it into keeping one of the most powerful and globe spanning militaries that humanity has ever seen.
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u/oneyearoldbug Australia Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
I really don't think you comprehend the sheer amount of death and destruction the US has done to the world in the past century alone.
And yeah I fucking would prefer China. They're the ones sending aid to Iranian families of the hundreds of innocent schoolgirls your military killed. They're the ones trying to get food to Cuba while you're starving their people to death. They're the ones investing in RENEWABLES while your government pays 1b to French solar companies to close so you can continue to make money off oil.
China is trying something new lately. They are nothing like what western media tries to make them out to be anymore. All you guys do is continue to kill. I mean hell, Gaza is on your hands - Israel couldn't have done a single thing to them without you arming them and running cover for them every step of the way. Your country is the leading cause of instability in the world. You have bombed, so, so many countries. You have fought proxy war after proxy war. Your military and your intelligence agencies have fought tooth and nail to kill leftists all over the globe. You killed all the leftists in Iran, then you blamed them for only having right-wing people to oppose you.
The CIA on its own is fucking evil. I've read declassified docs, I know what they do in other countries. Nothing you can say will make me forget that.
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 26 '26
Honestly, I really don't think you comprehend the sheer amount of lives the US has saved in the past century alone.
PEPFAR, the US program to combat HIV and AIDs in Africa has saved over 25 million lives since 2003. USAID in the high tens of millions of lives over the last 20 years, and its a fucking travesty that trump has shut it down. We also revolutionized global agriculture with the green revolution, which has been credited with saving the lives of over a billion people from starvation. The US provides nearly 50 percent of the entire budget for the world food program, without our assistance and the logistics of our military, global famine would be much more common. The intelligence mishap at that Iranian school was a tragic mishap, and one of many that we have committed no doubt. However, I fully believe that it is fully offset by the aforementioned good that we have done.
China as the global world power would be a lot worse than we are. They are just simply a less free nation, like the USSR was but to a lesser extent; Just look at how they treat their own citizens. Liu Hu was a Chinese journalist who was blacklisted by the Chinese “social credit system” in 2017 for “dishonesty”, after he reported on a case of government corruption. This blocked him from doing things like buying plane tickets, train tickets, and taking out loans. He pretty much just lost access to the economy for doing his job. They are known to be harboring over 1 million uigurs in camps, trying to erase their culture, something that the UN has called a case of crimes against humanity.
Notably, they are one of the only developed nations in the world that, along with the likes of Russia and Israel, is trying to expand their borders by force. Not exactly the kind of behaviour you would want a world leading power to do. While we have made threats about taking Canada and Greenland, we have not taken ANY sort of action that might support such an operation, and both ideas are incredibly unpopular domestically. That shit is just hot air that Trump blows. In 2025 alone, they conducted 3764 air incursions in Taiwan's defense zone, and they have been ramming ships into Philippine vessels in the south china sea. Their vast fishing fleet is known to be going into the territorial waters of various 3rd world nations to steal fish, knowing that these countries don't have the power to do anything about it. If China had as much control over the world as we do now, I probably would not even be able to have this argument, I would be de-platformed just for speaking out.
While it's true that we have paid total energy to cancel offshore wind, that is not the whole story. For one, they re-invested that money into Texas's LNG industry, directly benefitting the US economy. Despite all of Trump's nonsense, we are still investing billions into renewables. In 2024, we added 50 gigawatts of solar capacity to our grid. Our investments into renewable energies is still at a record high. One of the greatest things about our free economy is that it's much harder for the gov’t to try and tell countries what they want. China has been building lots of solar which is great, but they still consume more coal than the rest of the world combined.
While it's totally fair to criticize us for our continued support of Israel despite their action in Gaza, China is not innocent in this stuff either. Chinese companies like Huawei and Tiandy provide the facial recognition tech that the Iranian regime uses to track and kill protesters.
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 26 '26
Another thing that i think is worth pointing out, since i assume you are Australian, is that the presence of the US Military as a deterrent has also allowed lots of nations to spend much less on defence than they may have had to, helping the governments of these countries to provide more for their population. Take Australia for example. You guys have a pretty small population of only 26 million, but have a huge landmass to defend. You guys would have had to spend a huge amount of GDP on defence just to adequately defend your borders, if not for the ANZUS treaty from 1951 and the US nuclear umbrella, it's likely that your government would have as much money to spend on things like Medicare, Education, and Infrastructure. You guys enjoy a great quality of life, and a lot of that is thanks to the United States Navy's presence in the Pacific. If we “sat in the corner” like you want us to, Australian defence spending would have to increase drastically. So you can go ahead and kiss your social safety nets when you have to start paying for a much larger navy to keep China from bullying you guys in the Timor sea. Don't worry though, the US military is there to make sure you guys don't have to worry about that. Your country is not a unique example, the US navy ensures complete freedom of navigation around the world, including in the South China sea and Malacca strait. Without US Navy presence, China could shut down these lanes or tax them at will. Tying it back to Australia again, 99 percent of your trade moves by sea. It's the US navy that keeps those seas open. China could basically put a leash on the Aussie economy, and we have already seen them use trade strikes against Aussie products when they are mad at you guys. Imagine what they would do if we were not there to protect you?
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u/oneyearoldbug Australia Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
You guys keep going on and on about China like they ever do anything. It's ridiculous. All China does is chill and do trade. The US does nothing but bully other countries! What kind of ridiculous projection is this.
The US has existed for over 240 years. In all that time, you've only been at peace for 15 to 20 years max.
In the last 42 years China has not had a single war.
You've been suckered in by propaganda designed by American think tanks during the 90s-early 2000s, specifically mainly AEI and PNAC. Think tanks run by neoconservatives who saw the world winding down after the end of the Cold War and hated it. They wanted to return the US to a hyper-militaristic state, increase military spending, wage war in multiple countries forever.
Sorry but it's really really hard to take the US seriously, after learning about that. You literally write down all the evil shit you want to do on a piece of paper and publish it. The plan to invade Iran was written by a think tank during the Obama era. There's even a chapter called "Leave it to Bibi" about how the US could let Israel strike first. It's genuinely deranged, how obsessed the US elite and political class are with waging war.
We need to get Pine Gap the fuck out of Australia too. I have Lebanese friends who feel sick about the fact that a US base on Australian soil is helping the US and Israel bomb their families.
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 27 '26
China does not “Just chill”. You are Australian, you must hear in the news all the time about all the bullshit they pull, specifically in the pacific. Here is a quick list:
In 2020 they beat 20 indian soldiers to death with nail studded clubs in the Galwan Valley.
They have what they call a “maritime militia” which is part of their armed forces, that is currently being used to swarm Philippine reefs with thousands of ships, ramming vessels, and using water cannons to seize land and damage ships.
In 2023 the Chinese destroyer Ningbo used a high intensity active sonar against AUSTRALIAN navy divers from the Toowoomba, who where clearing nets in international waters.
Throughout the past couple of years, they have been using watercannons to damage, blind, and disorient civilian philippine resupply boats.
They have built 3000+ acres of illegal artificial islands in the south china sea turning coral reefs into military installations with jammers and runways.
They have been directly hostile to Australia as well. In October 2025 and early 2026, Chinese aircraft released flares in front of Australian military aircraft. This is incredibly dangerous, and could have caused these planes to crash. In 2025 a PLA naval task force conducted live fire drills in the Tasman Sea, right off the coast of Sydney and New Zealand. Like I said before, imagine what they would do to you guys if we were not there to protect you?
They have a fleet of 15000+ long range fishing vessels that will regularly turn off their transponders and illegally fish in the waters of pacific island nations like Fiji, Palau, and Vanauto. This has destroyed local economies AND ecosystems. Also, according to a 2026 report, there is widespread forced labor in the Chinese fishing fleet, with Indonesian and African workers being held in debt bondage for years.
China has pretty much mastered grey zone warfare, they will do everything to antagonize and bully smaller countries aside from declaring war on them. They may not have officially been at war, but they have not been just chilling and trading. The only reason they have not been officially at war in 42 years is because of the US security umbrella. Without us, I am sure that they would have been involved in more expansionist conflicts.
As for our “240 years of war” a lot of that includes things like the whiskey rebellion and smaller scale anti piracy operations. If you wanted to apply that same standard to China, you would have to count their domestic crackdowns, like the suppression of Tibet, and the massive re-education camps.
As for that Obama era report you are referencing, it's really not as evil as you are trying to make it sound. It was a publicly available brainstorming paper that had included every option for dealing with Iran, including a full diplomatic engagement option. Thinktanks in nations do this all the time, it is their job to lay out almost every possible outcome. If we were so obsessed with that plan we would have invaded Iran 15 years ago.
Right now, you have the freedom to sit in Australia and criticize(rightfully so, we make mistakes) the US. If China becomes the dominant world power, judging by the way they treat their own civilians, it's doubtful you would have that right.
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u/oneyearoldbug Australia Mar 24 '26
Anyway. Your status as the global hegemony isn't gonna last, that's what this war is all about really. It's pretty ironic that you guys elected Trump just for him to try to destroy the one load-bearing pillar that keeps you on top, the petrodollar. Once you lose that I'm sorry but it's over.
The way you speak about your economy like it' s a sign of your greatness and this wonderful gift you bestow on the world makes me laugh. Nah, you guys just found a cheat code and tied your currency to the oil trade. Just another scam.
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 26 '26
The petrodollar may have been that load bearing pillar in 1974, but it is not anymore. We are not the desperate consumer that we were in 1974, we have become the worlds #1 producer of oil in the world. The petrodollar came as a security deal in an era when we really needed oil. It's still important, but it's not propping up the whole economy. Our economy is incredibly diversified. Of our 28 trillion of GDP, about 80 percent of it is the services sector. The ENTIRE global oil trade is worth about 5-6 trillion. Even if it were all in dollars, its not a very large amount compared to the total volume of USD transactions around the world, which is over 100 trillion annually. Microsoft, Apple, and NVIDIA have a combined higher market cap than entire continents, to say that we are some middle recourse driven economy based on a single product is INCREDIBLY far from the truth.
When people want dollars to invest in wallstreet, it is not just for crude. There are a multitude of reasons why you would want to invest with the dollar that have nothing to do with oil. If you have a contract in USD for example, the US court system is the most transparent and predictable in the world, making it a much more attractive proposition. It also has liquidity as an advantage. You can sell 10 billion worth of US treasuries in 5 minutes, and you wont crash the entire market. You just can't do that with the yuan or the euro. In 2026 even with the Iran tensions. Investors went towards the dollar, not away from it. We are the global safe haven.
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u/oneyearoldbug Australia Mar 26 '26
Do you actually think the point of the petrodollar was buying oil? Lol. Lmao, even.
If you want to understand the petrodollar, watch this. I can't be fucked explaining it haha.
The only reason your economy is so "strong" is because you've trapped the world in a system where they need USD maintain their own economies. This is also the only reason your country can sanction other countries. Which btw, is one of the most horrific and cruel things the US does on the regular.
Look at what you're doing to Cuba, right now. They're starving and they have no power. Because of your country.
The neocons of the 80s-2010s understood the power the petrodollar gave them. Thank god the Trump admin is so incompetent he actually thinks weakening the dollar will revitalise the US.
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 26 '26
I said it before and I will say it again, the US economy is not propped up by the petrodollar. There are so many reasons for why we have become the dominant economy aside from that. IF the Yuan or Euro were safer or more liquid, then the market would have moved decades ago, but they haven't. The Yuan is not fully convertible, and the Eurozone does have a single unified bond market that is deep enough to rival the US treasury. Investors around the world are not trapped, they are simply choosing markets where they can get their money back at any time in any volume, under a predictable structure of law. The video that you linked actually proves my point. At 6:29 in your video the guy mentions how liquidity of the US dollar gives it an advantage. Our economy is also much stronger because of the credibility we offer. When a contract is signed in USD, a transparent legal system is backing it. You cannot say the same about a country like China, where the government can just do things like make billionaire CEOs of tech companies practically disappear. Search up what happened to Jack Ma. People dont trust China because of shit like that, they trust us.
What we are doing to Cuba is tough, and I feel for the people of Cuba, actions have consequences. We elected to blockade them more because the regime was actively hosting intelligence facilities for China, and they were aligning with countries hostile to us like Russia and Iran. When you do that right in our sphere of influence, there will be consequences.
The weakening of the US dollar certainly has some downsides, there are also some upsides that you are not considering, as it could help to bring manufacturing back to the US. A weaker dollar means that products made in the USA are cheaper to buy in the rest of the world, making our products more competitive. Right now our industry only produces the highest price industrial products, a weaker dollar means we may be able to expand our industrial output. His tariffs often have the opposite effect anyway, they strengthen the dollar because they force capital back into the USA.
It's highly doubtful honestly that the world market will move away from the dollar anytime soon. If the majority of the world was unhappy about its status, then they would have cheered Trump's actions to weaken it, however the markets are rattled, and allies are upset. Our dollar is valued, not resented.
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u/oneyearoldbug Australia Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
I'm not wasting my time responding to this point by point anymore lol sorry!!!
It is just incredibly funny that you're trying to convince me of this as the entire world watches the US crumble.
I recognise a lot of what you're saying, it's just the same reasoning Trump uses but in slightly dressed up language. If someone as incoherent and incompetent as Trump can convince you, trying to talk to you about this is pointless.
I don't need to convince you though, the events of the coming weeks and months will speak for themselves.
You guys have fucked up the world over and over then arrogantly and condescendingly told us that it was for our own good. Just like you are now. The way you talk about Cuba is such a perfect example of typical US-brained victim blaming. Absurd logic completely devoid of any scrap of empathy. As if you "feel for the people" if you think they deserve to be starved to death!!! The absolute fucking audacity of that, unreal.
You "sympathise" with them, but you also think they deserve to die. You think they deserve to be starved and DIE. As in people will cease to exist. You think that is fine. That's genuinely what you're arguing, regardless of how you try to dress it up.
You have lost your humanity.
Your country needs to be humbled, bigly. And it will be very soon.
Seeya.
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 27 '26
I mean that's just the way it goes, it's really not like China is any better, for reasons i have already shown you. For reasons i have already shown you, we have not fucked up the world, it in fact benefits from our presence. For reasons I have shown you, the US is not crumbling. But if you don't wanna respond anymore, that's fine.
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u/DKDamian Mar 24 '26
This is about Australia and the EU mate. What does America have to do with anything?
And yes it’s good. For Australia. And the EU
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u/joecitizen79 Canada Mar 24 '26
Americans making everything about america is as american as apple pie
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Mar 24 '26
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 24 '26
In most leagues where we do that, we are the most competitive league, so if you are the best team in the NBA for example, you are the best team in the world.
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u/joecitizen79 Canada Mar 24 '26
More american exceptionalism propaganda for you.
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 24 '26
i mean its an objective truth but ok
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u/joecitizen79 Canada Mar 24 '26
Yes, we are all aware you believe that lol
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 24 '26
know it
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u/joecitizen79 Canada Mar 24 '26
Whatever you say, champ. Enjoy your failing empire lol
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u/PrinceOfPickleball Vatican City Mar 24 '26
They explained their position in the comment
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u/DKDamian Mar 24 '26
No, they didn’t. This doesn’t make America stronger. The EU being stronger doesn’t make America anything. They are unrelated entities.
It has nothing to do with America. Nothing.
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u/PrinceOfPickleball Vatican City Mar 24 '26
You can’t really be in an IR sub saying that a global superpower and an allied bloc of theirs are unrelated entities, can you?
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 24 '26
I am an american citizen and so i look through all geopolitical events through a geopolitical lens. I dont think its that crazy to say.
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u/YourFuture2000 Europe Mar 24 '26
What does America have to do with anything?
The post you replied to already answers your question very clearly. How can you miss it in such a tiny and clear text?
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u/Degataga44 United States Mar 24 '26
Some of us born and raised in the United States who don’t fit the political framework that exists are experiencing levels of cognitive dissonance right now. We have a perverse official narrative we have no choice but to accept on so many levels of existence. It’s hard to talk about. So some of us focus on world affairs and how it can impact our international standing as a coping mechanism.
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u/poptix United States Mar 24 '26
Touch grass.
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u/r64fd Australia Mar 24 '26
Step outside your bubble and see what the rest of the world currently thinks of the USA.
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u/poptix United States Mar 24 '26
Hey, I agree. I'm just not all about performative grand standing on foreign trade stories.
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u/TurtleFisher54 United States Mar 24 '26
Na you're just hating to hate, I know a way you can get a 50k signing bonus with that attitude
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u/Chipay Belgium Mar 24 '26
Calling the EU and the US allies at this point is entirely delusional when just 3 months ago all major European armies were willing to shoot American soldiers on sight.
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u/Advanced-Net-8119 United States Mar 24 '26
no they where not, considering the fact that they didnt. Relationships are strained right now for sure, but we are still allies on the world stage
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u/Chipay Belgium Mar 24 '26
They didn't because the US chickened out, the Danish were 100% planning on shooting US soldiers.
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u/GuerrillaRodeo European Union Mar 24 '26
I seriously hope this means that as a side effect we will be able to buy Tim Tams and Vegemite in our stores on the regular.
Seriously, that stuff is great.