US President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany July 7, 2017. Reuters/Carlos Barria
One of the European Union’s most prominent political figures said the bloc won’t tolerate attacks on international standards intended to protect legal trade and human rights.
As the world tries to digest how U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs will play out, the EU must fight to ensure that none of the principles it stands for are compromised, said Margrethe Vestager, the bloc’s competition commissioner.
"We have spent decades making sure we have a global system -- the World Trade Organization and the United Nations -- and we’ll insist ourselves, fully, in making these institutions work and not be contradicted, circumvented or broken down,” Vestager said in Copenhagen on Monday.
The Dane, who has taken on giants such as Google and Apple, said developments to the east also add urgency to the importance of defending European priorities.
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Trump has raised the specter of a global trade war that threatens to alienate some of the U.S.’s longstanding allies. Vestager spoke out on the matter as Germany explores diplomatic channels to try to defuse the situation rather than risk a mutually destructive series of retaliatory measures.
Vestager says the EU has a "global responsibility” to protect a set of principles painstakingly formulated since WWII. "What Europe stands for is more important than ever.”
