As a way of wooing Washington, pressure is building within the EU to harden the bloc’s trade stance toward China. It’s a wager that taking on Trump’s biggest foe will keep Europe out of the tariff firing line.
Just last week, EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič floated the idea of teaming up with Washington to “deal with the joint challenges coming from China’s non-market policies.” It was the first time Brussels has explicitly linked its policy toward Beijing with an effort to keep Trump on side.
Despite Trump’s recent actions, there is still a preference in Brussels for sticking with the alliance with America.
“If the U.S. starts a trade war, then the one laughing at the side is China. We are very interlinked, we need America and America needs us as well,” said Kaja Kallas, Europe’s top diplomat, on her way into a meeting of European leaders on Monday.
But opening a front against Beijing could be a dangerous miscalculation as it might undermine Europe’s credibility in future negotiations and fracture EU unity, warned Agathe Demarais, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“Given the high level of divergence across EU member states on how to approach relations with Beijing, there is virtually zero chance that the bloc could adopt measures that would prove strong enough to appease Trump in the field,” said Demarais, adding that the EU’s policies “are unlikely to impress Trump much.”