Recent ECB research has uncovered something striking—internal trade barriers within the EU are actually creating more economic drag than the tariff levels that US President Trump previously proposed against the bloc. This finding underscores just how fragmented Europe's single market really is, and the uphill battle ahead for any reforms.

What does this mean? The friction costs embedded in cross-EU commerce are already baking inefficiencies into the regional economy. When policy uncertainty meets structural trade barriers, it ripples across asset markets and investor sentiment. For those tracking macro trends and their downstream effects on risk assets, this ECB data points to deeper structural challenges that'll shape economic growth trajectories—and potentially volatility—in quarters ahead.