The days pass and there is still no white smoke. Annoy to see the negotiations with the European Union’s comb, Donald Trump threatened the rights block of 27 clients last week of 30% in all EU imports as of August 1 if no agreement is reached for then.
An intimidation to which Brussels does not intend to give in. If the European Commission is still waiting for a negotiated solution, it has already prepared its response by reading 100 billion euros in American products (airplanes, cars, bourbon …) that it could impose in return. However, insufficient for France that defends a much stronger reaction in the EU than, according to her, she should draw the final weapon: “the anti-coercion instrument” (ACI).
“The position of Europe must be a negotiation position, but also a position of firmness. (…) Now we must change its method,” said Industry Minister Marc Ferracci, evoking the need to “trigger a certain number of response measures” against the United States in the absence of agreement.
Nicknamed “Bazooka Commercial”, the ACI with which the EU has ended the end of 2023 was never used. It should be said that it is above all a “deterrence” weapon aimed at restricting third countries to resolve commercial conflicts through negotiation, as explained by the European Parliament in its place. But in the event that diplomatic routes are exhausted, ACI can be used as reprisals. Therefore, the system provides a series of sometimes very heavy measures (depriving a country of access to the single market) that must allow a rapid, directed and proportional reaction in case the 27 is the objective of the “economic coercion”.
• What do we mean with “economic coercion”?
The European Commission specifies that “economic coercion” corresponds to “a situation in which a third country seeks pressure on the European Union or a Member State to make a particular decision applying or threatening to apply measures that affect trade or investments.”
“Such practices improperly interfere with the legitimate sovereign elections of the European Union and its member states,” continues the institution. In the case of the dispute with the United States, the customs duties of Donald Trump seem to be part of this definition.
• How long to configure it?
To govern the coercive nature of a policy led by a third country against the EU, the European Commission must first carry out an investigation. “The question of whether a third party measure meets these conditions (economic coercion) will determine a case -by -case basis,” he said.
If she decided to activate the ACI to retaliate against the United States, she would probably take several weeks, even several months before being completely operational, Bloomberg recalls. Particularly because the commission will have to submit its proposal to attract this tool to the European Council, which would then have its decision to validate or not.
These replica measures must also be adopted by qualified majority. In other words, collecting the agreement with at least 55% of the Member States that represent at least 65% of the EU population.
• What possible measures against the United States?
The anti-coercion instrument allows us to use a wide range of measures. If you judge that the United States exerted unjustified pressure against the EU, the commission could, in addition to the application of customs tasks, imposed fees aimed at several sectors, including services, including digital services.
It can also go much further by restricting or even prohibiting the importation of certain American products, suspending authorization to exercise certain US companies in the single market, which remains the largest in the world in the number of consumers, limiting the investments of these companies or restricting or freezing access to European public procurement.
The Minister of Industry, Marc Ferracci, spoke on Tuesday the possibility of establishing “restrictions on online advertising for digital platforms.”
• Where does the ACI come from?
The instrument against Coercir comes from the regulations adopted by the European Council in October 2023. It was adopted while the EU has faced for a few years with situations of economic coercion. Especially when China has exerted commercial pressure on Lithuania after it has strengthened its links with Taiwan. Or when Russia has used economic levers and energy to try to influence European political decisions.
Source: BFM TV
