Eye on Asia | An EU-Britain contest for Asia’s trade will only weaken both Brussels and London

One possible consequence of Brexit is competition between Britain and the European Union for Asia’s attention. However, despite Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab’s visits to Australia, Japan and Malaysia last month, London is unlikely to have the resources to emerge as a serious rival.

To the surprise of most, Britain did not bother sending a minister to the recent Munich Security Conference, where EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell prepared for upcoming summits with his Chinese, Japanese and Indian colleagues.

Asia increasingly views the EU as a stable and predictable actor, regulatory superpower and pillar of the multilateral system. As Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, “closer EU-Asia relations can only result in a win-win situation”. Borrell recently told a meeting in Brussels that Abe’s views were widely shared by Asian foreign ministers at an Asia-Europe Meeting forum in Madrid last December.

This month, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Brussels to kick-start stalled negotiations for an India-EU trade agreement. EU leaders will also visit Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing before the summer. The biggest challenge will be China, which the EU branded a “systemic rival” in its tough new policy paper last March. Beijing, taken aback, has been wooing Brussels with statements about a common commitment to multilateralism.

Two EU-China summits are planned in April in Beijing (coronavirus permitting) and Leipzig in September. If no agreement is reached on the EU-China investment treaty by then, Brussels stands ready to introduce measures to restrict Chinese business activity in Europe, which could involve tougher investment screening and restrictions on Chinese bids for public projects.