Exclusive | The EU is ready to create a “kill switch” weapon to exclude Chinese companies from the market
Brussels is ready to develop a powerful new trade weapon that could contain a circuit breaker that would quickly eject Chinese companies from the European market, the bloc’s national leaders said at a high-level meeting in the Belgian capital on Thursday.
The 27 members largely supported such a tool, initially presented in a Joint Franco-German document Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signaled that her trade team could get to work developing it, according to people briefed on the negotiations.
Von der Leyen presented the “kill switch” as an option during his opening presentation to other leaders on Thursday, sources confirmed.
As described in the joint document, the instrument would allow Brussels to respond quickly to systemic distortions and coercive behavior, potentially immediately. This would grant sweeping new powers to the Commission, the EU’s executive branch, which manages the bloc’s trade policy.
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