Brussels is open to developing a powerful new trade weapon that could contain a kill switch that would quickly eject Chinese companies from the EU market, the bloc’s national leaders were told during a top level meeting in the Belgian capital on Thursday.
There was broad support among the 27 members for such a tool, first laid out in a French-German joint paper last week, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signalling that her trade team could get to work on developing it, according to people briefed on the talks.
Von der Leyen presented the “kill switch” as an option during her opening presentation to the other leaders on Thursday, sources confirmed.
As described in the joint paper, the instrument would allow Brussels to respond rapidly to systemic distortions and coercive behaviour, potentially immediately. It would grant dramatic new powers to the commission, the EU’s executive branch, which manages trade policy for the 27-member union.