EU holds anti-trump show in China and Japan

BRUSSELS – Senior EU officials will meet with leaders of China and Japan next week to improve relations with fears that US President Donald Trump is launching a global trade war.

EU Council President Donald Tusk and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker signed a free trade agreement with Japan. The signature was moved from Brussels last week after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe turned to face the deadly floods at home.

Their Asian tour comes as the EU – which with 28 countries and 500 million people is the biggest market trying to forge alliances against the protectionism adopted by Trump's "America First" administration.

European Commission spokeswoman Margaritis Schinas said Japan's "historic" agreement was "the biggest ever negotiated by the European Union." This agreement will create an open trading area covering nearly a third of the world's GDP, "Schinas added.

In China on Monday, the two leaders will meet with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to discuss their tensions shared with Washington.They both recently announced new tariffs on US products in retaliation for the measures imposed by Trump.They should reaffirm their support for the rules-based international order, including the Organization. World Trade Day, which faces unprecedented criticism of Trump.

Leaders will also discuss climate change – another point on which the EU disagrees with Trump After the withdrawal of the agreement from Paris on the climate and nuclear issues in North Korea and Iran, Schinas said:

But the EU and China will have to mitigate the existing differences on the practice s restrictive of the Beijing market, including dumping. Chinese imports at low prices, especially steel. The European Union has recently adopted measures to offset the consequences of granting the status of "so-called market economy" to the WTO, which will make it more difficult to prove and sanction from China.

In Tokyo, the talks will also focus on the presentation of a united front against the United States over its tariffs, the Japanese government having described them as "extremely deplorable".

The EU-Japan agreement was recently hailed as a "strong signal to the world" against US protectionism by EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who is traveling with Juncker and Tusk to Asia. Abe was originally scheduled to come to Brussels to sign the agreement last week, but canceled the trip after the floods and landslides in Japan killed more than 200 people.

Given the "tragic circumstances", Tusk said that they would move the summit to Tokyo

Schinas confirmed that Juncker would stick to his "very demanding program" and continue his journey in Asia despite a painful condition that has stumbled several times at a NATO summit in Brussels last week.

denied "insulting" suggestions that Juncker was drunk.