EU should negotiate with US, China with 'gun in pocket', says Pascal Lamy

euronews (in English)

The US and China pose existential challenges for the EU, former Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy tells Euronews' Europe Conversation.

Transcript

00:00Former Director General of the World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy believes the EU is

00:07in danger as Donald Trump returning to the White House and China create existential threats

00:12for the bloc.

00:15He says Europe must negotiate with quote a gun in its pocket.

00:20We now have two big elephants in the world, China and now the US who want to overhaul

00:32the system.

00:34To do what?

00:36Unclear, but they both say this system is not good for us and we need to use the power

00:45we have to change it.

00:47And this, of course, puts the EU, which is the epitome of a regulated, disciplined,

00:57ordo liberale system in a bind.

01:01And I'm worried about the world.

01:05I'm very much worried about whether the EU, as the future of my children and grandchildren,

01:13will be able to overcome this challenge, which, in my view, is existential.

01:20So what should the EU do now, particularly given that Trump had said he's going to apply

01:2525% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, despite the fact that they have trade deals, there's

01:31going to be potentially tariffs against China and, of course, possibly against the EU.

01:37That's my experience of negotiating with the US and China and other big shots.

01:43When I was in this business, you should do that with a gun in your pocket.

01:51If you negotiate with the mafia, you may have to, but you need a gun in your pocket.

01:59You need to show your strength and say, ready to deal.

02:05But if the deal does not work, if you believe you will debalance a deal just because you

02:10are threatening us, we have the means to retaliate, which is true because we have a large market

02:17and US exporters of a number of products will have problems if we retaliate.

02:24Stay tuned and listen to the full interview in next week's The Europe Conversation.

02:28To get more insights on trade, the EU, China and the environment.

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