Europe Has to Take on China to Save Free Trade
The European Union is actively pursuing new trade agreements to maintain a rules-based global order amidst shifting economic dynamics. The article argues that the EU must balance its commitment to traditional trade rules with the reality that China often operates outside these established frameworks.
Why it matters
This strategy highlights the EU's attempt to secure its economic future and supply chains against the backdrop of US-China trade tensions.
The US and the European Union have been on a trade agreement tear, competing to define the future global trading system. The EU looks to backstop the more established rules of the road; the US, to muscle bilateral commercial balances in its favor. Each has lessons for the other: The US would do well to remember the stability, cooperation and shared gains that enriched it alongside others. The EU would benefit by recognizing, as the US does, that traditional trade rules no longer work when China, the world’s second largest economy, doesn’t abide by them.
Over the last five years the EU has signed new free-trade agreements with New Zealand, Kenya, Australia, the South American nations of Mercosur, Singapore, Indonesia, and India, and overhauled previous ones with Chile, Ukraine, and most recently Mexico. Together, these accords set rules for nearly a third of the globe’s GDP.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in