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European Union
ChinaDiplomacy

Global crises pushing US and Europe into closer commercial partnership, top EU trade official says

  • Dovetailing transatlantic legislation will offset China’s influence in face of unfair competition, says European Commission’s Sabine Weyand
  • Ukraine war described as crisis that strengthened bond between two allies, with Beijing posing ‘bigger challenge’ over long term

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European Commission Director General for Trade Sabine Weyand speaks at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Wednesday. Image: CSIS
Laura Brickman

Global crises from Covid-19 to the war in Ukraine have effectively pushed the United States and European Union into closer commercial partnership and could enable the two to counter China in the future, a top EU trade official said on Wednesday.

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Sabine Weyand, the European Commission’s Director General for Trade, outlined Europe’s rethinking of its trade policies in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Dovetailing transatlantic legislation would serve to offset China’s influence and “ensure security and level the playing field in the face of unfair competition” over the long term, Weyand said in remarks delivered at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“We have a closer degree of cooperation right now than we’ve had in a very long time,” added William Alan Reinsch, a former president of the National Foreign Trade Council and moderator of the CSIS event. “The war is a crisis … but the bigger challenge long term is China.”

Describing a decline in adherence to international law, particularly China’s contested application of World Trade Organization rules addressing forced labour, Weyand explained EU efforts to mitigate the problem, such as screenings of foreign direct investment in cooperation with the US since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The EU has also revised export controls and implemented anti-coercion instruments, similar to recent American legislation banning various Chinese imports in response to forced labour practices in Xinjiang.
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Other rules designed to shore up the effectiveness of climate policies include a ban on products from deforested areas and a carbon border adjustment mechanism to avoid carbon leakage – laws that by and large impact Chinese products.

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