rump could hardly have chosen a worse moment to threaten to slap tariffs on the European steel industry. The EU trade officials staring him down on the other side of the Atlantic are more confident and assertive than they have been in years. Catalyzed by securing political agreement on a huge trade pact with Japan, they are now relishing the prospect of a tit-for-tat trade war they think they cannot lose. [...]
When former U.S. President George W. Bush announced “temporary safeguards” against steel imports from the EU and other countries in 2002, the Commission struck back on exactly the same sort of farm goods that are back on its list now. [...]
The EU’s rediscovery of its mojo in one of its few hard-power competences is now palpable in the way that Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is projecting Brussels on the international stage. Whether pushing China to back off from buying out prized EU technology companies or firing warning shots at Trump, there’s a newfound sense of resolve in the way the Commission carries itself. Britain’s muddled attempt to negotiate Brexit also helps make Brussels look like a steady hand. [...]
Only this week, Brussels fired a shot across America’s bows to warn that it would retaliate if Washington’s latest round of sanctions against Russia impacted European companies and energy projects. Juncker insisted he was ready to hit back within days. “America First cannot mean that Europe’s interests come last,” he stressed. [...]
The election of President Emmanuel Macron in France is also pushing the block to bolster its trade defenses against China. Macron is a leading proponent of a “Buy European” strategy and the Commission is working on legislation to help stop Chinese takeovers of the EU’s top infrastructure and energy companies. One Commission official described it as “amazing” that these sort of measures were now being discussed among the traditionally liberal free-traders of the Trade department.
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