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Opinion | As Donald Trump’s hate for the European Union thaws into love, could China be left out in the cold?
Cary Huang says China’s one party-led, authoritarian political system will struggle to embrace the truly free trade institution that could emerge out of the trade war
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It is fairy tale to suggest haters can be turned into lovers in days.
But US President Donald Trump wrought such magic. In the course of 10 days, the unpredictable Republican firebrand made a U-turn from calling the European Union a “foe” to declaring that US and the EU “love each other”.
In an interview with CBS on July 15, Trump called the EU an economic “foe” and “possibly just as bad as China” on trade. But on July 25, Trump tweeted that the EU and US “love each other!” after he and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker agreed to “launch a new phase” in the relationship, following their talks at the White House.
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Trump’s abrupt change of attitude towards the long-time US ally came amid escalating transatlantic tensions over issues ranging from trade to defence, Iran and climate change that boiled over at the rancorous Group of 7 and Nato summits recently.
But what underscored the Trump-Juncker summit was not emotional sentiment but serious business as Washington and Brussels agreed to work to achieve an out-and-out free trade bloc, which will have “no tariffs, no barriers and no subsidies”.
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