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EU takes anti-Trump trade show to China and Japan
BRUSSELS, July 14, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The European Union’s top officials will
meet the leaders of China and Japan next week to boost ties in the face of
fears that US President Donald Trump will spark an all-out global trade war.
The trip by EU Council President Donald Tusk and Commission head Jean-
Claude Juncker includes the signing of a free trade deal with Japan, which
was moved from Brussels last week because Japanese premier Shinzo Abe was
dealing with deadly floods at home.
Their Asian tour comes as the EU — which, with 28 countries and 500
million people is the world’s biggest single market — tries to forge
alliances in the face of the protectionism of Trump’s “America First”
administration.
European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said the “landmark” Japan
deal was “the biggest ever negotiated by the European Union”.
“This agreement will create an open trade zone covering nearly a third of
the world’s GDP,” Schinas added.
In China on Monday, the two leaders will meet with President Xi Jinping and
Premier Li Keqiang to discuss their shared tensions with Washington, having
both recently announced new tariffs on US goods in retaliation for measures
imposed by Trump.
They are expected to reaffirm their support for the rules-based
international order, including the World Trade Organization, which faces
unprecedented criticism from Trump’s administration.
The leaders will also discuss climate change — another area on which the
EU is in disagreement with Trump after he pulled out of the Paris climate
deal — and nuclear issues in North Korea and Iran, Schinas said.
– ‘Signal to the world’ –
But the EU and China will have to smooth over existing differences over
Beijing’s own restrictive market practices including the “dumping” of cheap
Chinese imports, especially steel.
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Some of those concerns are shared by Washington.
The EU recently pushed through measures targeting China that were intended
to offset the consequences of granting China so-called market economy status
at the WTO, which will make it more difficult to prove and punish illegal
trade practices by Beijing.
In Tokyo, talks will also focus on presenting a united front against the
United States over its tariffs, with the Japanese government having slammed
them as “extremely deplorable”.
The EU-Japan deal was hailed recently as a “strong signal to the world”
against US protectionism by EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who is
travelling with Juncker and Tusk to Asia.
Abe was originally due to come to Brussels to sign the deal last week, but
he called off the trip after flooding and landslides in Japan that killed
more than 200 people.
Tusk had said that after the “tragic circumstances” they would move the
summit to Tokyo.
Schinas confirmed that Juncker would stick to his “very demanding agenda”
and go on the trip to China and Japan, despite suffering from a painful
medical condition that made him stumble repeatedly at a NATO summit in
Brussels this week.
The EU spokesman denied “insulting” suggestions that Juncker was drunk.
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