At first, Brussels resisted the idea of coordinating with other countries hit by Trump’s tariffs, such as Canada or Mexico. But it eventually changed course.
“The main criticism that can be made against the Commission is that it did not seriously try to build an international anti-Trump coalition,” former WTO chief Lamy said.
That’s something that Brussels tried to fix in late June, when at a leaders’ summit, von der Leyen floated the idea of a new club in which the EU’s 27 countries would join forces with the members of the Pacific-focused Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, bloc, which counts the U.K., Canada, Japan, Mexico and Australia among its members.
This was met with enthusiasm from the leader of the bloc’s biggest economy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “If the WTO is as dysfunctional as it has been for years and apparently remains so, then we, who continue to consider free trade important, must come up with something else,” he told reporters.
Talks between EU and CPTPP negotiators are now expected later this year, with the goal of coordinating efforts to defend rules-based trade in the face of Trump’s tariff offensive, a top New Zealand finance official told POLITICO.
“The only way the EU can rebuild trust in the system is by coordinating with other members, beyond the U.S., to ensure WTO rules are respected,” said Molina, who now heads up his own law firm, Molina & Associates.
“That will require leadership and teamwork — and the hope that Washington eventually realizes this trade war hurts American interests and consumers.”