EU ‘must hold nerve’ in trade dispute

THE euro area must not lose its nerve over trade tensions with the US, and Europe needs to stay united as US President Donald Trump calls into question the world order, European Central Bank executive board member Benoît Coeuré said at an economic forum yesterday.

Tariffs are not the most important issue, Mr Coeuré said, days after Mr Trump imposed levies on $34bn (€29bn) of Chinese imports, prompting Beijing to retaliate as the world’s two biggest economies exchanged their first blows.

“It’s absolutely necessary to resist the temptation of euro pessimism or a feeling of powerlessness of Europe versus China and the US,” Mr Coeuré told an audience in Aix-en-Provence in southern France.

China has accused the US of igniting the largest trade war in economic history. (Bloomberg)