EU Trade Commissioner Says EU Wants to De-Escalate Global Tensions
The international trading system is in its deepest crisis in 70 years, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström said, and while she understands the U.S.'s frustration with China's abuses, she laid the blame squarely on the U.S. In a speech July 19, she said the EU is concerned about the U.S. blocking appointments to the appellate body at the World Trade Organization, its attempt to justify steel and aluminum quotas on tariffs on national security grounds, its unilateral tariffs against China, and its use of "increasingly aggressive rhetoric at allies."
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Malmström and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will meet with President Donald Trump next week, and, she said, "we want to defuse this situation as soon as possible. We need to de-escalate before this blows up in our faces -- doing harm to the transatlantic relationship, our economies and the global order." Malmstrom said the EU wants to reform the WTO, but it also sees the WTO as central to guarding the rules-based system. "The same day we launched a WTO case against the U.S., we launched a case against China on forced technology transfers," she said.