Merz and Macron call on EU to curb imports faster — Politico Europe
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, in a joint letter, called for granting the European Commission more powers to respond quickly to trade threats. They propose creating a new mechanism that would allow Brussels to restrict imports from certain countries.
A new tool for the European Commission
As Politico reports, the leaders of the EU's two largest economies said that the current set of trade defence instruments is no longer sufficient. In the letter, they noted that the open, rules-based trading system is being affected by the use of trade as a tool of pressure, systemic market-distorting practices and global macroeconomic imbalances.
Merz and Macron propose supplementing the existing mechanisms with new legal instruments that, in their view, should be simple and non-bureaucratic. An unnamed German official said that the mechanism should ensure a level playing field and described it as a second-strike tool.
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Faster adoption of restrictions
Currently, the EU Anti-Coercion Instrument theoretically allows the European Commission to restrict imports in response to actions considered economic coercion. However, its use requires months of investigation and the support of a qualified majority of EU member state governments.
The mechanism proposed by France and Germany would make it more difficult for member states to block urgent measures. European Commission decisions would remain in force unless they were blocked by a reverse qualified majority of EU countries.
The letter does not directly mention China, but Politico links the initiative to the EU's trade deficit with the world's largest exporter, which amounts to about €1 billion per day. The proposal was made public ahead of European Commissioner for Trade Maroš Šefčovič's trip to Beijing for the final round of a four-month process in which Brussels seeks to rebalance trade relations with China.
