A recent letter from former high-ranking European Commission officials to the current Commission President Ursula von der Leyen raises various trade and market protection concerns and urges the Commission to take certain actions.
The letter raises legitimate areas of concern both as regards the current crisis in global trade and EU trade policy more generally. However, it is less than clear that the letter accurately identifies either the real problems or the best solutions. In our view, a more useful and convincing call to action would emphasize a need rather for rounding out and effective enforcement of a set of EU policy instruments able to address the emergence of new market threats (whether from the US, China or elsewhere, whether in the form of unilateral measures outside the WTO context, massive subsidies or other elements of unfair competition).
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