US, EU and Japan team up to pressure China on trade

The EU, Japan and the US are set to announce a new alliance to take on China more aggressively over trade issues such as overcapacity in steel and forced technology transfers, in a rare effort at international economic co-operation by the Trump administration.  In a statement due to be issued on Tuesday on the sidelines of a World Trade Organization meeting, the three economies will target the “severe excess capacity” in important sectors like steel and the role of illegal subsidies, state financing and state-owned enterprises in fueling it, according to a draft read to the Financial Times. 

Also targeted are the rules in countries such as China that require foreign investors to hand over important proprietary technologies or house content and data on local servers. The statement will not name China. But it reflects all three economies’ growing angst about its continuing economic rise, officials said.