Opinion | US trade deal leaves EU as the sidekick in Trump’s China policy

Europe has surrendered to Washington’s China containment strategy, trading sovereignty for subordination in a consequential geopolitical realignment.

The August US-EU “Framework on an Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair, and Balanced Trade” was not negotiation but a capitulation that redefined Europe’s international role. Brussels accepted US President Donald Trump’s terms wholesale, recasting the European Union as an auxiliary enforcer of America’s China policy.

Brussels is set to enforce US export controls within its own jurisdiction, ceding power over technology transfers in the sector that will shape this century.

The subordination deepens through clause 19, which introduces “economic security alignment” measures requiring Europe to screen investments and restrict capital outflows “by taking complementary actions to address non-market policies of third parties”, two coded descriptions of China. American long-arm jurisdiction, once resisted across Europe, is now codified.

These measures aim to sever Beijing’s access to Western capital, technology and markets. China’s strategy of leveraging transatlantic divisions dissolves once those divisions are erased by design. The framework eliminates the space between Washington and Brussels that Beijing relied on.