European Union negotiators agreed to reinforce the bloc’s trade-sanctions powers in response to the U.S. challenge to the global commercial order. Representatives of EU governments and the European Parliament reached a deal on Wednesday in Brussels to upgrade the bloc’s legislation on applying international trade rules.
The accord closes a loophole by ensuring the EU could impose penalties against countries that illegally restrict commerce and simultaneously block the World Trade Organization’s dispute-settlement process.
“We are facing increased international trade uncertainty and this deal strengthens the EU’s defensive toolbox,” Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a French member of the EU Parliament who helped broker the agreement, said by phone afterward. “It reinforces Europe’s global trade power.”
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