Britain’s Keir Starmer is the latest Western leader to thaw trade ties with China in a shift analysts say is driven by US tariff pressure and unease over Donald Trump’s volatile policy playbook.The prime minister’s Beijing visit this week to promote “pragmatic” co-operation comes on the heels of advances from the leaders of Canada, Ireland, France and Finland.Most were making the trip for the first time in years to refresh their partnership with the world’s second-largest economy.”There is a veritable race among European heads of government to meet with (Chinese President) Xi Jinping,” Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy, told AFP.This is “driven by internal rivalry to secure investments and market access before the China-US summits in February and April”, he said.It’s not just China looking more appealing these days: on Tuesday, India and the European Union announced a huge trade pact two decades in the making, a move to open new markets in the face of a strained status quo.Vietnam and the European Union also on Thursday committed to deeper cooperation on trade, technology and security.India and other emerging markets such as South America “are too small to sustain the world’s most export-dependent economies, which are in Europe”, Lee-Makiyama said.So they have no choice but to turn to Beijing — despite concern over its human rights record, and accusations of economic coercion.”Half of economic growth is generated by either the United States or China,” Lee-Makiyama said, adding that “the United States is hardly opening up”.- ‘No longer reliable’ -Trump’s unpredictable tariff onslaught signals that “the United States is no longer a reliable trading partner”, said William Alan Reinsch at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.For the new EU-India Free Trade Agreement, “you can argue that, ironically, Trump’s policies have pushed it across the finish line” 20 years since negotiations began, Reinsch told AFP.Starmer told Xi on Thursday it was “vital” to develop the two countries’ relationship, with the Chinese leader also stressing the need for stronger ties in the face of geopolitical headwinds.London and Beijing enjoyed what they described as a “Golden Era” a decade ago but relations deteriorated from 2020 when Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong.Nonetheless, China remains Britain’s third-largest trading partner, and Starmer’s centre-left government is keen to boost UK economic growth.While the European Union also wants stronger ties with China, it is alarmed by the current trade imbalance, with a gaping deficit of more than $350 billion to Brussels’s disadvantage.Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin urged “open trade” in his talks with Xi in early January, while France’s Emmanuel Macron denounced the trade imbalance on a visit to Beijing in December.- More Trump threats -China and India are also seeking ways to cope with Trump’s tariffs designed to boost US manufacturing and “make America great again”.”A select few countries should not have privileges based on self-interest, and the world cannot revert to the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak,” Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng said at the World Economic Forum this month.In some cases, Trump has retaliated with more tariff threats, including a new 100 percent levy on all Canadian goods if the US neighbour makes a trade deal with China.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China in Beijing this month, touting a “preliminary but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs.Under the deal, China, which used to be Canada’s largest market for canola seed, is expected to reduce tariffs on the products to around 15 percent, down from the current 84 percent.In return, Canada will import 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles under a preferential tariff rate.Carney’s visit “signalled a fundamentally new approach to how Ottawa intends to navigate a more fragmented, contested and uncertain world”, wrote Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at APF Canada. But she warned it could risk being misinterpreted as “a softening of Canada’s assessment of the national and economic security challenges China poses”.Reinsch at the CSIS predicted that the latest agreements would leave the United States at a disadvantage in the long run, while noting they were “surprisingly traditional”.Negotiations on lower tariffs and reducing non-tariff barriers are “exactly what the world has been doing for the past 75 years”, he said.”The outlier is the United States.”

Vietnam and the European Union pledged to deepen economic and security cooperation on Thursday, upgrading their diplomatic relationship to hedge against an increasingly unpredictable United States.Vietnam and the EU must “stand side by side as reliable and predictable partners” at a moment when the “international rules-based order is under threat”, European Council President Antonio Costa said during a visit to the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.President Luong Cuong, speaking at a joint press briefing, called the upgrade to Vietnam’s highest-level partnership a “new landmark” reflecting “sincere and mutual trust”.The announcement of the comprehensive strategic partnership comes less than a week after Vietnam’s Communist Party reaffirmed General Secretary To Lam as the country’s top leader, backing his vision for sweeping growth-oriented change.Vietnam and the EU signed a free-trade deal in 2019, with bilateral exchange growing by around 40 percent since then.But Hanoi’s ballooning surplus with the bloc has rankled European leaders who have called for the removal of non-tariff barriers on EU products such as automobiles.The two sides agreed on Thursday to deepen cooperation on trade, technology, energy and security, according to a joint statement.They also pledged to work together on supply chain security, critical minerals, semiconductors and artificial intelligence. “Science, technology and innovation” should become the “pillars of bilateral ties”, Cuong said, adding that Vietnam also sought cooperation on security and defence, especially at sea and in the cyber domain.- Beyond the US and China -Vietnam has emerged as a regional economic bright spot, clocking eight percent growth last year despite new 20 percent tariffs from its largest export market, the United States.Faced with deepening trade uncertainty, Vietnam is on the hunt for new markets beyond top trading partners, the United States and China.At its twice-a-decade leadership conclave last week, the party elevated foreign affairs to a “core” national function, alongside national defence and internal security.Upgrading ties with the EU is part of Hanoi’s effort “to diversify its export market beyond the US”, said Khang Vu, a Vietnam expert and visiting scholar at Boston College.”Vietnam wants to maintain an open international environment for trade, and the EU can help,” he added.Hanoi also has comprehensive strategic partnerships with China, Russia and the United States.It has agreed similar partnerships with nearly a dozen countries since 2022, seeking to tap their markets, knowledge and technology as it pursues a bigger international role. Vietnam has long practiced what its leaders term “bamboo diplomacy”, looking to stay on good terms with the world’s major powers.