While we are on this subject, and since I agree wholeheartedly with what you said, let's give another exemple where fact and numbers are more important than generalisation and opinions: a big contention point about tariff between EU/US was cars, and how the US claimed EU had a larger tariff than the US, while the numbers actually showed the US imposed a bigger tariff on average due to the trick of calling some cars "light truck" and putting truck tariff on them.
US argument: "Europe taxes American cars 10%, while America taxes European cars 2%."
Which seems true, when you look at the actual EU/US tariff numbers:
US: 25% tariff on trucks, 2.5% on cars
EU: 22% on trucks, 10 % on cars
Quote from [1]:
> But when you look in details at the numbers, you realize that most of what is sold in the US, that is considered as car in the EU, is put in the trucks category in the US, by being called "light truck".
> In the US there are twice as many "light trucks" sold compared to "cars". Light trucks are pickups, SUVs, minivans. Those are just "cars" in Europe.
> EU import fees are 10% on cars (hatchbacks and SUVs alike). US import fees are 2.5% on cars and 25% on light trucks.
> Average car price in the US is $26k, average light truck price is $36k.
> Therefore, if you care for math, average duty on combined US car+light truck market is 19%, nearly double of the EU rate!
Trade, tariff and the likes are complex matters, but ultimately they're also just numbers, so when in doubt, run the numbers.
IIRC, this blatant miscategorization of vehicles is what ultimately killed the Mini Clubman Panel van from being a possible thing in the United States (in addition to it being a supremely weird vehicle.)
US argument: "Europe taxes American cars 10%, while America taxes European cars 2%."
Which seems true, when you look at the actual EU/US tariff numbers: US: 25% tariff on trucks, 2.5% on cars EU: 22% on trucks, 10 % on cars
Quote from [1]:
> But when you look in details at the numbers, you realize that most of what is sold in the US, that is considered as car in the EU, is put in the trucks category in the US, by being called "light truck".
> In the US there are twice as many "light trucks" sold compared to "cars". Light trucks are pickups, SUVs, minivans. Those are just "cars" in Europe.
> EU import fees are 10% on cars (hatchbacks and SUVs alike). US import fees are 2.5% on cars and 25% on light trucks.
> Average car price in the US is $26k, average light truck price is $36k.
> Therefore, if you care for math, average duty on combined US car+light truck market is 19%, nearly double of the EU rate!
Trade, tariff and the likes are complex matters, but ultimately they're also just numbers, so when in doubt, run the numbers.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/8vaqdi/trump_on_tra...