Trump's Trade Spat With China Squeezes Europe
Brussels needs to strike an awkward balance to defend its own interests as protectionist bullets fly.
Keep the flags flying.
Photographer: Martin LeisslDonald Trump isn’t shy about using trade as a weapon to get what he wants. He has slapped tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods as he tries to deliver what he claims will be an “epic” trade deal for the American people.
Now he’s using a similar playbook against Europe, just as it prepares to start trade talks with the U.S. The president is proposing to levy tariffs on some $11 billion of imports from the European Union, nominally in response to the latter’s subsidy of Boeing Co. rival Airbus SE. This kind of stand-off might normally be expected to drive Beijing and Brussels, the two chief victims of Trump’s ire, into each other’s arms. But that isn’t happening because the EU has its own bone to pick with China.