European and Asian leaders pledged their support for free trade at a meeting on Friday that underscored global trade tensions with US President Donald Trump.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Asia-Europe Meeting in Brussels would send a signal that “countries are coming together here from Europe and Asia that all want rules-based global trade and are committed to multilateralism.”
The meeting brought together 30 European leaders with their counterparts from 21 Asian nations as well as top officials from the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Together, the group accounts for some two-thirds of the world’s economic output, 55 percent of global trade and 60 percent of the world’s population.
A written statement said the leaders “highlighted the vital need of maintaining an open world economy and upholding the rules-based multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organization at its core.”
Trump slapped 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent on imported aluminum from the EU on June 1. He said the move was to protect U.S. national security interests, but the Europeans claim it is simply protectionism and breaks global trade rules.
The EU hit back with tariffs on about 2.8 billion euros worth ($3.4 billion) of U.S. steel, agricultural and other products.
The stakes are even higher in Trump’s trade war with China. Trump has imposed tariffs on about $250 billion worth of Chinese products amid US accusations that China engages in cyber-theft and coerces foreign companies into handing over technology in return for access to the Chinese market, as well as by Trump’s anger over China’s trade surplus with the US.
The wide-ranging agenda in Brussels also included discussions on climate change. In their closing statement, the leaders expressed “profound concern that current global efforts are insufficient” to meet goals set out in the 2015 Paris climate accord. Trump has removed the U.S. from that deal.
On the sidelines of the meeting, the EU signed a pact with Vietnam that aims to tackle illegal logging. Later the EU was signing a free trade deal with Singapore.
In another conclusion that ran counter to U.S. policy, European and Asian leaders praised the Iran nuclear deal — another multilateral initiative rejected by Trump.
“Preserving the nuclear deal with Iran is a matter of respecting international agreements, and promoting international security, peace and stability,” they said.
