For well over 40 years there has been periodic talk of a potential trade war between Europe and the United States. The latest upsurge of verbal threats was occasioned by the World Trade Organization's (WTO) recent ruling that U.S. steel tariffs imposed by the Bush administration were illegal. The purpose of these tariffs was to render financial assistance to the struggling American steel industry and its thousands of employees.

Retaliatory thoughts surfaced rather quickly. USA Today reported from Brussels, "The World Trade Organization cleared the way Monday for more than 20 foreign countries to hit the U.S. with billions in export taxes in retaliation" (Nov. 11, 2003).

In Britain The Independent stated, "Europe can now impose duties on products ranging from T-shirts and lavatory paper to bras, pantyhose, suspenders, ballpoint pens, ski suits and bowling alley equipment" (Nov. 11, 2003). These products are most probably only starters. More heavyweight items would surely follow.

In an article titled "The Trade Trap" in The World in 2004 (published by The Economist), the author predicted, "The [coming] year would be hazardous for the world economy." A U.S.-EU trade war would make this prediction all but a certainty.

Pointing the finger of blame

Naturally the United States has tended to blame Europe for trade war threats and vice versa. Predictions of serious economic problems go back to the early 1960s. In 1961 one top editor of an American business magazine sounded the following warning: "In terms of its meaning to every manager and every worker in the United States, what may well be one of the greater challenges of our lifetime is now developing in Europe.

"It will affect our standard of living, the competitive position of our industries and the future safety of our freedom and democracy. It will have effects second only to those of World War II. I refer, of course, to the booming strength of the European Common Market" (Advanced Management, July-August 1961).

Writing in The Wall Street Journal over 40 years ago, a leading foreign trade analyst of that time sensed similar implications, expressed more dramatically. "Whichever direction the U.S. turns in trade policy, it encounters an entirely unprecedented economic prospect. For the first time since it became an industrial society, this nation will find its factories at war along an enormous front against an overseas industry which before long should have an essential capability for fabricating any product, almost without exception, at lower cost. That is the meaning of the [European] common market...

"The planned and unplanned responses America will make as it first senses and then suffers so smashing an economic impact elude full comprehension" (Dec. 6, 1961).

So far, an economic catastrophe resulting from the ever-emerging presence of the European Union nations and the possible financial spin-offs of a damaging and potentially disastrous trade war has not happened. For one thing, these lower costs in Europe never materialized on an across-the-board basis. Another consideration is that the leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have always chosen to pull back from the brink during a serious trade crisis. President Kennedy did so during the steel crisis back in 1961.

The tendency to achieve compromises in response to a damaging crisis would seem to continue even to this day. While still visiting Britain, President George W. Bush said that Prime Minister Tony Blair had spoken to him about the U.S. steel tariffs, not once but three times. The president added that he was certainly willing to take a second look at these controversial tariffs. But what of the future?

What about the future?

Based primarily on prophecies in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament and Revelation in the New, for some 70 years the Church of God has been warning the world about the ultimate effects of an economically and politically resurgent Europe that would threaten world peace.

A trade war might be one important avenue to the fulfillment of many important biblical prophecies in this region of the globe. It may be the means of bringing the principal English-speaking nations to their knees because of their mounting sins against God and His way of life. Some of these key prophecies are recorded in the 17th and 18th chapters of the book of Revelation—the final book in the Bible. They indicate that an emerging economic and political system in Europe will dominate the world scene, heavily influenced by a major religious system calling itself Christian.

The Bible correctly labels this whole political, economic and religious system as "Babylon the Great" (Revelation 18:2), a union having enormous global effects. Verse 3 states: "For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries" (New International Version, emphasis added).

Figuratively speaking, Scripture also refers to this system as the Beast power. When finally God judges this end-time union of nations, "The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more" (verse 11), indicating a worldwide trading system dominated by this European power.

Verse 12 goes on to describe a wide range of goods and luxuries. Verse 14 tells of "riches and splendor." In this modern 21st-century world of ours, many of these riches will most probably emerge as a result of a vast trading combine.

A much more comprehensive understanding of these highly significant future events may be obtained by requesting our free brochures The Book of Revelation Unveiled and You Can Understand Bible Prophecy.

Back to the present

To return briefly to the here and now, a recent Daily Telegraph article summed up the current trade situation by relating the words of British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. He "told European Finance Ministers that they must move beyond outdated notions of a 'sheltered trade policy' if they wanted to halt the alarming decline of the European economy" (Nov. 5, 2003). Mr. Brown was not including the United Kingdom in this assessment.

The Independent adds: "The steel row is only one of a number of trade disputes which threaten to poison relations between the EU and the U.S. and could help stymie prospects for economic recovery" (Nov. 11, 2003).

In proposing a possible resolution to these knotty trade difficulties, The World in 2004 concluded that "America needs to make the first move—not because it is the principal wrongdoer (the EU probably deserves that distinction), but because only the United States is powerful enough to break the impasse at its own initiative."

Our free brochure, The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy, shows that these two English-speaking nations are the descendants of the biblical patriarch Joseph. Despite their differences, they tend to stand together in any severe world-impacting crisis. At least on a governmental level, they have done so in prosecuting the war and the recovery efforts in Iraq.

But Britain's ever-increasing entrapment in the politics of the European Union (and its trade policies) may even threaten the special relationship between these two countries. The present policies of several other key nations seem to have a goal of isolating the modern descendants of Joseph from the world community—and perhaps attempting to divide the two brothers, Britain and America.

To understand the overall historic and prophetic impact of the modern descendants of the house of Joseph upon the whole world, please request this free brochure. You cannot fully understand key biblical prophecies without this essential knowledge. —WNP