Europe and China yesterday signed a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment after seven years of negotiation. Why now? As I report at Asia Times, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron pushed the deal through to pre-empt anything that the new U.S. administration might have to say on the subject.
Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger said, “Leaders in both U.S. political parties and across the U.S. government are perplexed and stunned that the EU is moving towards a new investment treaty right on the eve of a new U.S. administration.”
Perplexed? Germany now sells more to China than it does to the U.S., thanks to China’s economic snapback and America’s continued economic weakness. East Asia (not just China, but South Korea and Taiwan) crushed the pandemic in weeks, while we still can’t distribute the vaccine we have. Last month China signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership with fifteen other Asian countries, eliminating most tariffs on imports from Japan among others. U.S. economic importance is shrinking.- READ MORE
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