End of an era
In terms of trade, Lombard called for more aggressive domestic policies to boost European companies in key industries in the face of stiff competition from their Chinese and U.S. rivals.
“Free trade is over, it’s dead,” Lombard said, noting that the U.S. and China stopped obeying the international trade rulebook a long time ago.
Lombard, who was still a minister when the European Union concluded a trade truce with the United States, acknowledged it was a “bad deal” but defended the European Commission for striking it anyway to avoid a trade war with Washington.
“We didn’t have a better one,” he said.
Europe, he argued, didn’t have the means to stand up to Trump as it did not have the economic weight of China, he said.
“We faced an attack, and that was our response,” he said.
