There’s a new front in the global trade war, and Trump’s not part of it

June 9, 2026 — 12:11pm

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Next week, there will be two high-level meetings in Europe that could add another dimension to the global trade wars.

On Monday, G-7 leaders will hold their annual summit in Évian in France, with global trade imbalances a key and potentially inflammatory element of the agenda.

Immediately after that two-day meeting, European Union leaders will hold their own summit in Brussels, weighing up measures to diversify supply chains in sensitive sectors of their economies - which will have a particular relevance to the bloc’s relationship with China.

Europe finds itself vulnerable to a swelling tide of cheap imports from China as a result of the trade wars Donald Trump has instigated against the rest of the world and the impact of the tariff wall he has built around America, which is redirecting China’s exports towards the EU.

One of the measures the EU is looking at is legislation that would force companies in sensitive sectors to reduce their over-reliance on single suppliers, notably Chinese suppliers.

It is considering directing them to have at least three different sources of “critical supplies” to shield them from supply chain disruptions and government policies such as the export controls China has erected around rare earths and semiconductors.

Had Trump co-opted Europe into a joint trade war with China, America and the EU -- combined by far the largest markets for China’s exports – would have been in a far stronger position to force China to change its ways.

Other potential step are a broadening of export and import quotas and tariffs for imports from China to protect Europe’s car, chemicals, metals and green technology industries, and accelerating processes to prevent product dumping practices and unfair subsidies.

The EU’s current anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations (about 75 per cent of them involving imports from China) can take a year or more to be........

© Brisbane Times