Well, it’s so bad now that I hesitate to believe that EU countries would want to make it any worse. If a tiny operator like me is ceasing to buy their stuff, imagine what the scale is for the big buyers - and what happens if they drop out. Whether Europe likes it or not, our trade is important to them, and if they keep this up, they will essentially have priced us out of the market.
They can boast and brag all they want, but if the major buyer goes away, it’s going to be a pretty hollow boast. On the plus side, of course, we might just go back to making things here again. Unfortunately, thanks to 40 years of massive abortion, we no longer have much of a labor force (we already have nearly full employment), so it’s going to be a stretch to get people into manufacturing jobs again. But we could probably do it if we had to.