All About the EU’s Trade Weapon of Last Resort: QuickTake

The European Union has a powerful tool to wield in trade disputes that it hopes it will never need to use.

As President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on the bloc with a threat to impose a blanket import tariff of 30% on European goods, some member states are floating the possibility of invoking the “anti-coercion instrument.”

The ACI allows the EU to use an array of measures stretching well beyond the boundaries of trade in goods in response to coercive actions by a trading partner. In that sense, the bloc would be seeking to fight fire with fire: Trump’s ...