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On 8 December, the European Commission proposed a new tool to counter the use of economic coercion by third countries. The aim of the instrument is to deter countries from restricting or threatening to restrict trade or investment to bring about a change of policy in the EU in areas such as climate change, taxation or food safety.

The anticoercion instrument is designed to de-escalate and induce discontinuation of specific coercive measures through dialogue as a first step. Any countermeasures taken by the EU would be applied only as a last resort when there is no other way to address economic intimidation, which can take many forms. These range from countries using explicit coercion and trade defence tools against the EU, to selective border or food safety checks on goods from a given EU country, to boycotts of goods of certain origin. The aim is to preserve the EU and the Member States' legitimate right to make policy choices and decisions and prevent serious interference in the sovereignty of the EU or its Member States.

The proposal will now be discussed and agreed by the European Parliament and the EU Council, that will internally develop their positions before negotiating with each other in trilogue discussions with the assistance of the Commission.

Source and more information: European Commission