Kolkata, Aug. 22 -- The US President Donald Trump's weaponisation of tariffs forced most countries, barring China or Brazil, to give in to the threats without resistance. But it was the European Union's (EU) capitulation that shocked the world. The transatlantic partnership that defines the relation between the US and Europe has gone through periods of difficulties and deviations in the past. But economic and political dependency on each other has allowed the partnership to survive.

Excessively, after the tariff acceptance, questions were raised whether it has become one-sided. When trade negotiations began between the two sides, the EU asserted it would match the US tariff with a counter-tariff. But after Trump halved it from 30 per cen...