Politico pointed out Europe's difficult choices about China because of Trump
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is putting European leaders before a difficult choice between two disadvantageous options for them, Politico wrote on January 19.
"Trump is pushing the Europeans to a choice in which both options will be a loser," the piece said.
According to the authors' assessment, the first option is to completely abandon Europe from goods from China, which may entail retaliatory measures from Beijing and further slow down the economies of European countries.
The second approach is to leave the Republican alone in his confrontation with the Chinese side, the journalists pointed out. However, in this case, we can expect Washington's duties on European goods, which will also lead to a slowdown in economic growth.
At the same time, the European Union fears that the continent will find itself in a precarious position in the event of a sudden rapprochement between the United States and China under Trump, the publication noted.
Earlier, on January 18, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Europe to act more confidently in relations with Trump. In her memoirs, she called the US president-elect a special president who protects the interests of his country, but in multilateral cooperation does not believe in the possibility of a win-win situation for both sides.
Prior to that, on January 17, the European Commission said it was ready to defend Brussels' interests when engaging with Trump if necessary. There expressed hope for trade cooperation, but indicated readiness for any development of events.
