WHAT a difference a few months makes. Barely half a year ago the European Union’s (EU’s) trade policy was a mess. A much-touted trade and investment partnership (TTIP) with the United States was on life support, trashed by NGOs and consumer groups, and disowned by some of the politicians who had asked for it in the first place. A deal with cuddly Canada (CETA) barely survived an encounter with a preening regional parliament in Belgium. Governments were scrapping over how to respond to state-subsidised Chinese steel, and Britain, among the club’s weightiest pro-trade voices, had voted to leave the EU, a decision made flesh by the government’s Article 50 letter this week.
And now? Trade is “going to be huge in the coming months”, says a European diplomat. His word choice is a reminder of the reason for the change: Donald J. Trump. One of the American president’s first acts was to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade deal covering a dozen countries around the Pacific Rim. Mr Trump complains about Germany’s trade surplus, and his administration hints that it will ignore rulings from the World Trade Organisation. The leader of the free world is...Continue reading
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