The European Union's global actorness in the climate change era: using Sustainable Development Goals to bring China and the US together

This chapter looks into whether the multilateral trade regimes and institutions have the maturity to offset the possible negative impact of protectionism on the global job market and larger international development trends. The paper specifically evaluates how the EU could fortify the capacities of the multilateral organizations in its own right as a mediator between a protectionist US and the pro-open market China along with other emerging markets from the Global South. The chapter categorically evaluates the EU's varying capacities in different global multilateral regimes and offers options on EU's mediation roles between the protectionist US and rest of the global actors. These regimes include fisheries, climate change, minerals under the larger framework of the Sustainable Development Goals. Trump Administration's protectionism may open new areas for the EU to take the helm of global leadership in pushing for the realization of the SDGs.