Europe risks shooting itself in foot with ‘premature’ Chinese trade agreement
The investment pact risks splitting EU members and alienating the US president – all for a deal with few benefits
21 February 2021 • 5:00am
The EU s investment pact with China could be geopolitical own goal
Credit: Thierry Monasse /Getty Images Europe
Ursula von der Leyen boasted of bending China to Europe’s will at a Warwick conference earlier this month as the European Commission president spoke in grandiloquent terms of the region’s investment pact with Xi Jinping’s authoritarian regime.
Commitments from China to stamp out forced labour amid international outcry over the persecuted Uighurs put to work in Xinjiang province were emblematic of the “role I see for Europe on the global stage”. “China agreed to do this because of us,” the German stressed. This was “a forceful cooperation, a forceful progress”.
Boris Johnson s government is gaslighting Britain about the realities of Brexit, critics say cnn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cnn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
| UPDATED: 11:02, Fri, Feb 19, 2021
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The UK has yet to be granted the equivalence status on financial services regulation that would free up trade because the EU says it needs more information about Britain s intentions to diverge from the bloc s rules. Britain insists it has supplied all the necessary paperwork and described the City as one of the world’s most pre-eminent financial centres, with a strong regulatory system .
BBC News
By John Campbell
Published
image captionThere has been strong Unionist opposition to the new Irish Sea border
It is not often in the past five years that Irish MEPs have shared a Brexit position with the UK government.
But that happened this week when a cross-party group of MEPs suggested that the EU should extend the Irish Sea border grace periods .
But an extension for what purpose?
Is it to give businesses more time to adapt by training, switching supply chains and updating their systems and processes?
Or is it to provide breathing space in which the EU and UK could agree to make changes to the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Brexit deal which created the Irish Sea border?