Bound by rules and economics, EU trails US on China tariffs

Aslak Berg, research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said the European Union was moving towards the U.S. position, but not to the same extent and that it was still using its traditional tools.

"It's more politically sensitive, but it's not legally different from cases of steel tariffs," he said, referring to Wednesday's action on EVs.

..."The EU is still acting in the same framework as pre-Trump. With China, the U.S. has freed itself from restraints of the WTO and is acting according to domestic policy," Berg said.

...CER's Berg said the U.S. and the EU each saw their rivalry with China in different ways. The former wanted to limit a challenge to its global supremacy, while the latter was more concerned with how a larger China behaved.