Press

Aslak Berg und Zach Meyers vom Center for European Reform in London sehen in einer überparteilich gestützten Hinwendung der USA zu Protektionismus. 

Zach Meyers, assistant director of the Centre for European Reform, said the tariff dispute illustrated Germany no longer led EU trade policy and that the influence of France too was more limited after Commission President Ursula von der Leyen removed French commissioner Thierry Breton and gave a less influential role to his successor.

“The stakes are hard to overstate. If Scholz had succeeded in overturning the tariffs at the eleventh hour, it would have vindicated China’s efforts to lean on individual member-states and been the final nail in the coffin of EU efforts to have a foreign economic policy,” said Sander Tordoir of the Centre for European Reform.

The scale of the problems facing Europe, though, with Germany giving up hope of achieving any growth this year, mean a lot has to go right. If energy costs are a competitive disadvantage for industry, that’s a separate challenge to needing more R&D spending. Trade policy will also have to play a part in leveling the playing field for domestic industries, with an imminent decision due on China EV tariffs. All these will have to work alongside foreign policy in the race to secure raw materials, as the Centre for European Reform notes.