‘Trade policy moved from nerds-only to the centre of geopolitics’

Foreign trade has been one of the most important topics of 2025. ‘There’s a lot to be negative about, but there are also positive elements. A new trade policy is in the making, says Kathleen Van Brempt, MEP for Flemish socialist Vooruit, and vice chair of the trade committee of the EU parliament. New trade agreements and new instruments to better implement the existing ones are the two key components of that new EU trade policy.

For many years, international trade policy was something for nerds, very technical, with complicated agreements. Today, all certainties are gone, and trade policy has become one of the main pillars of geopolitics. The US is no longer an ally of the EU, and dealing with China is difficult, Van Brempt says.

She expects a lot from the instruments the EU is building to defend itself and its priorities. The EU can’t rely on international legal rules anymore and has to find other ways to ensure social protection and the environment are taken into account.

China was the reason for starting to construct such instruments. The dumping, the unfair competition, the blackmail, the near-monopoly over rare raw materials… the EU needed instruments to protect itself against China. And those same instruments are now necessary in dealing with the US. ‘We need many instruments to sanction countries that use trade to threaten the EU. For example, the US with tariffs on steel.’

FTA

The EU also needs new trading partners, even if ‘the US will always remain a very important partner’. Some years ago, trade agreements were very unpopular in the European Parliament. During its previous term, the EP only approved an FTA (foreign trade agreement) with New Zealand. Today, the Mercosur negotiations (with several Latin American countries) draw a lot of attention. But there are also advanced negotiations with many Southeast Asian countries. ‘They are very motivated, given the way they were threatened with the Trump tariffs’.

Van Brempt expects this to be a structural change. ‘Even before Trump II, with Biden, there was protectionism on the US side. Biden didn’t repair the functioning of the World Trade Organisation, he didn’t lower steel tariffs …’ Concerning the US, she isn’t happy with the trade deal EC president Ursula Von der Leyen closed with Donald Trump in Scotland. The Commission and the member states too readily accept Trump's policies. Van Brempt wants more guarantees. ‘This can’t be our permanent trade policy towards the US.’

Thailand

Another concern for Van Brempt is the attitude of the EP's largest group, the EVP (Christian Democrat). Pointing to the present priority of simplification, they weaken the instruments to protect the EU priorities. Van Brempt uses the FTA negotiations with Thailand as an example. Van Brempt is in the lead on this in the EP, as the so-called rapporteur.

‘Thailand is eager to have an agreement, but it’s not an easy country. The challenges are doable, but important. Social challenges, challenges concerning the environment.’ Van Brempt wants to make full use of the EU rules on deforestation, forced labour, and the obligations of multinationals. ‘Those instruments mirror the will to close FTAs. They can promote our trade policy, they create a fair balance. The right wing shouldn’t cooperate with the extreme right to knock down these instruments.’

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