Donald Trump's world is, in fact, a world rapidly accelerating its decoupling from the United States. The most direct consequence of the economic, technological, and military coercion that the US president has decided to impose on partners and rivals is a global hyperactivity in the search for alternative alliances and a move away from Trump's unpredictability. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking in Davos, summarized this moment of "rupture" with the old, rules-based, post-World War II system and called for a union of "middle powers" to establish a new world order. Faced with Trump's aggressiveness and competition from China, the rest of the world has embarked on a quest for alternative trade relationships. This is not just about diversification; a veritable global race has been unleashed to secure stable and lasting agreements.

Catalan farmers will continue their road blockades across the country, they announced on Friday, hours after the 27 member states of the European Union approved the free trade agreement with Mercosur (the South American bloc), against which they had begun their protests in Catalonia. The farmers have accused the Catalan government of having "sold them out," while the Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, defended the trade agreement, asserting that "Catalonia is the biggest winner." "We have a 105% agri-food trade surplus, which we want to maintain and expand," Ordeig stated regarding the Catalan primary sector. In this regard, he emphasized that, in an international context where "there are countries in the world that are isolating themselves and isolating us," it is necessary to "seek new trading partners." The regional minister met this Friday in Reus with representatives of the farmers who are blocking access to the port of Tarragona and asked them to act responsibly so as not to disrupt supplies.

When negotiating with the Donald Trump administration, things are rarely completely closed or clear. This is what is happening as a result of the agreement signed this Thursday between Brussels and Washington to avoid a trade war. In fact, the door to an undesirable situation such as a battle over trade barriers is not completely closed, as was often the case with pre-Trump diplomacy. A recent article in the British weekly The Economist He was talking about Trump and the Groucho Marx school of diplomacy in reference to the negotiations with Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, but it could be extended to all areas, such as tariff policy.

When negotiating with the Donald Trump administration, things are rarely completely closed or clear. This is what is happening as a result of the agreement signed this Thursday between Brussels and Washington to avoid a trade war. In fact, the door to an undesirable situation such as a battle over trade barriers is not completely closed, as was often the case with pre-Trump diplomacy. A recent article in the British weekly The Economist He was talking about Trump and the Groucho Marx school of diplomacy in reference to the negotiations with Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, but it could be extended to all areas, such as tariff policy.

"Those who do not go together are hung separately" ("Those who don't hang together get hung separately"). This is how a European diplomat expressed himself in the Financial Times about thetrade agreement between the European Union and the United StatesThe phrase recalls the need for the Twenty-Seven to unite before Washington to close a satisfactory pact, with the added irony that it is a quote from a founding father of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, who uttered it during the conflict between the thirteen American colonies and the British Crown that led to the United States' declaration of independence in 1776. During her appearance on Sunday in Scotland with US President Donald Trump, the president endorsed the agreement, which leaves tariffs on European exports to the US at 15% and imposes a long, multi-million dollar list of unspecified expenses and investments that the EU will have to carry out in the US. The following day, however, arose amid an avalanche of criticism of the agreement from member states, employers' associations, and analysts. The continent's press, like some governments, spoke of European "submission" to Washington.