Us-Eu Economic Relations. Reset Or A New Trade War?

In the recent seven decades, trade relations among states have enjoyed a stable multilateral global framework that has underpinned economic growth, poverty alleviation and expanding world prosperity as never before. Unfortunately, in time, many disruptions entailed by the redistribution of the economic power among countries, the impact of new technologies, the geopolitical and technological competition between the great powers and their recent trend of inward focus, global rules defiance, disputes and trade wars, have added to the inherent imperfections of the multilateral framework, putting global order at risk. The most visible actors of this strained international context are the US and China, which a waging a trade war with a strong underlayer of technological, geostrategical and geopolitical rivalry. All the countries experience to a larger or smaller extent the impact of this conflict, but the European Union is probably the most endangered as, on the one hand, it is the largest economic partner of both rival states and, on the other hand, it is itself a target of a potential trade war with the US. This article looks at the current state of the US-EU economic relationship, the impact of the US-China trade war and of Chinese policies on the EU, some of the thorniest dossiers in transatlantic relations and the prospects of these relations.