China: a nova divergência Europa/EUA

"DESPITE all the fence-mending that has taken place during George Bush’s tour of Europe, some transatlantic disagreements could not be prevented from spilling into the open. The most awkwardly visible of these is the European Union’s planned lifting of its embargo on arms sales to China, which the United States opposes. On Tuesday February 22nd, Mr Bush said that: “There is deep concern in our country that a transfer of weapons would be a transfer of technology to China which would change the balance of relations between China and Taiwan.” If the EU went ahead with the lifting of the ban, he added, it would have to “sell it” to America’s Congress, which, he suggested, might retaliate with restrictions on technology transfers to Europe.
The EU will lift its Chinese arms embargo, introduced after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, later this year. This, the Union hopes, will open the door not only to profitable weapons sales but to closer trade relations in general with an emerging economic superpower. In an effort to assuage American concerns, the Europeans say they will limit the transfer of advanced technology by strengthening their “code of conduct” for arms sales; and that they will inform the Americans of any arms sales that would have been prohibited under the embargo. This week, France’s President Jacques Chirac said the embargo would be lifted under conditions that Europe and the United States “define together”".

[in Economist]

O levantamento do embargo à China, é o novo braço-de-ferro entre a Europa e os EUA. Se somarmos a pressão sobre o Irão e as críticas à Rússia, não é difícil prever momentos conturbados na política externa norte-americana.

Qual será a reacção do conjunto da Europa?

j.marioteixeira@sapo.pt