In the end, Europe found it lacked the leverage to pull Donald Trump's America into a trade pact on its terms and so has signed up to a deal it can just about stomach — albeit one that is clearly skewed in the U.S.'s favor.
As such, Sunday's agreement on a blanket 15% tariff after a monthslong standoff is a reality check on the aspirations of the 27-country European Union to become an economic power able to stand up to the likes of the United States or China.
The cold shower is all the more bracing given that the EU has long portrayed itself as an export superpower and champion of rules-based commerce for the benefit both of its own soft power and the global economy as a whole.
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