British, US China hawks call for ‘Nato for trade’ against Beijing

Name: G7, Nato rhetoric mark ‘seismic shift’ between China and the West
Uploaded: 2021-06-27T23:00:19.000Z
Duration: 6 min 33 s
Description: G7, Nato rhetoric mark ‘seismic shift’ between China and the West

Group would retaliate as one to economic coercion from China aimed at any member, proponents say

But analysts say idea could be undermined by competing commercial interests and problems mounting joint action

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Hawkish British politicians and an American industrial lobby group have proposed a Nato-like trade alliance against China. Photo: Bloomberg

Finbarr BerminghamandCissy Zhou

Published: 7:00am, 28 Jun 2021Updated: 7:00am, 28 Jun 2021

Hawkish British politicians and an American industrial lobby group have called on Western allies to form a “Nato for trade” to counter China’s “weaponisation of policy tools to punish any nation that does not kowtow to Beijing”.

The proposal is for democratic nations to create a trade-based alliance along the lines of the North Atlantic military grouping formed to counter the Soviet Union in 1949.

Under Nato rules, members agree to defend any one of them that comes under attack.

Similarly, backers of the proposed Democracies’ Alliance Treaty Organisation (Dato) advocate retaliation in response to coercive measures by China against any member.

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G7, Nato rhetoric mark ‘seismic shift’ between China and the West

A report on the proposal was commissioned by the China Research Group, a hardline group of British Conservative members of parliament, and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a science and technology policy think tank with links to the US government and big tech firms.