Does the EU Anti Coercion Act target China and the United States? China calls on the European Union to jointly oppose "US economic coercion" countries | EU | US
On the 6th, the European Union reached a final political agreement on the Anti Coercion Instruments Act to protect EU member states from economic coercion by third countries. On the 7th, the Chairman of the International Trade Commission of the European Parliament, Lange, wrote on his personal website that this new bill will enable the EU to better defend its own and member states' interests on a global scale.
According to Agence France Presse, according to the bill, the European Commission will have four months to make a ruling after receiving complaints from member states. If there is indeed economic coercion, the first step is mediation. If it does not work, the EU can take countermeasures such as imposing tariffs, restricting trade in services, restricting access to foreign investment, or restricting participation in public procurement. According to the definition of the European Commission, economic coercion refers to third countries attempting to take or threatening to take measures that affect the trade or investment of the EU or member states, forcing them to make specific choices. The report states that the new regulations are expected to take effect in the fall of this year.
When European media conducted relevant reports, they believed that the EU's move had implications for China and the United States. The Swiss newspaper Neu Zurich commented on the 7th that the EU is arming itself with another defensive measure to resist economic coercion from China. But these measures have costs for EU countries, especially for Germany, as trade with China is not as important to any EU country as it is to Germany. The European Dynamic Network quoted Lange as saying that if the United States retaliates against the EU for introducing a digital tax on large American companies, then it is also a potential target of this bill.
At the regular press conference of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 7th, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin responded to relevant questions by stating that both China and the European Union are victims of economic coercion by the United States. The United States openly coerces countries such as the European Union to restrict the export of semiconductor production equipment to China. This technological bullying behavior seriously impacts the development of the semiconductor industry, not only harms the interests of China and the European Union, but also undermines multilateral trade rules, seriously impacting the world economic order. China hopes that the European Union and the international community can work together to oppose economic coercion by the United States.