The EU Commissioner has put “Europe first” in response to Donald Trump

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The EU’s new industry chief has called for a “Europe first” approach for major business groups, in a bid to prevent the bloc from becoming a victim of a global trade war launched by Donald Trump.

Vice President of the European Commission Stéphane SéjournéA former French foreign minister and close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, told the Financial Times that Europe must act on “offensive measures” to advance its business interests and avoid being flooded with imports from China.

Séjourné, who is in charge of the industrial policy of the association, said: “I believe that Europe has everything to gain from being open to other countries. But “When China says ‘Made in China’ or the US says ‘America First’, we should say: ‘Made in Europe’ or ‘Europe First'”.

New work has promised to restore the bloc’s competitiveness in the next five years, a task that will be difficult if US President-elect Donald Trump acts on his threats to remove global tariffs, destroy trade agreements and reduce US business regulations.

Séjourné said her “greatest fear” is that Europe will become “a pawn in a global trade war”.

“When all the international markets are closed, the remaining open market will not be the European market,” he said. “If the United States closes to Latin America, closes to India, closes to China, the European market cannot be the most powerful place in the world, otherwise we will be in economic trouble for a while.”

Brussels should send “a strong message to the United States to tell them that, today, we see no reason to limit our trade talks and trade”, he said. “The new government must realize that . . . they also have no value in engaging in a trade war.”

He stopped short of arguing that the EU is pursuing a protectionist agenda.

“It’s not about security at all because Europe is not interested in a global trade war,” he added. “We have the passion and the technology to develop our industry, create jobs and grow.”

Séjourné acknowledged the “bad music” of the European economy, which has been rocked in recent weeks by carmakers and steelmakers, as well as the collapse of Swedish electric battery maker Northvolt, which had been heralded as the continent’s green bellwether.

He said the organization will focus on technical projects such as steel, car and aircraft manufacturing, and clean technology.

“It will be important to do it in a direct way, at important points. But you have to do it offensively and not defensively,” he said.

“Old” companies should be protected because they provide “crucial support” for the clean technologies needed for the green transition, Séjourné argued.

“In fact (making steel) is a good way because there is no wind turbine without steel. There is no car manufacturing without steel,” he said. “So, if we want to build other industries, we need the steel industry.”

At the same time, clean technologies such as hydrogen and digital technology can be “connected” to the most polluting industries to reduce emissions.

The new commission, which started working on December 1, will clarify critical issues in its first 100 days, he said. Another major policy effort will be to bring together the bloc’s major markets to create a better investment environment – a long-held ambition that has been thwarted by opposition from member states.

“We want to give life to European industrial policy and economic theory, which we have not had until now,” he said. “So far we’ve had different approaches that sometimes don’t work together.”

In a major challenge to the existing industrial processes in Brussels, Northvolt, which received a lot of money from the EU, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, resulting in the loss of millions of euros to investors, including Goldman Sachs and the EU itself. guaranteed loans of €300mn to the company.

Séjourné said he wanted to assure investors that “Europe will not abandon the battery industry”.

“We should not be sad for setting up this sector, for helping them and helping them and above all when they face a technical problem we should not let everything we did in the past be destroyed by the first problem,” he added.