The EU’s moralizing finger-wagging belongs to a bygone era.

The EU’s lecturing finger is a thing of the past

USA is no longer the reliable trade partner it once was. Therefore, the EU must find new partners—and we cannot demand that they adopt our values, argues a former Danish top diplomat.

Watch the full interview with Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen in *Deadline* on DRTV. Posted 33 minutes ago.

What trade policy will the US pursue toward European countries? It depends on the day you ask President Donald Trump.

Last July, the US agreed to a 15% tariff on European goods. Due to the conflict over Greenland, Trump would have raised it—until he changed his mind.

The unpredictable stance from Washington has made it urgent for the EU to expand its circle of trade partners. That’s the view of Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen, who has previously served as a department head in the Danish Foreign Ministry, deputy secretary-general of the OECD, and now works as director of corporate affairs at Netcompany.

“We will have to turn toward each other. But we will also need to turn toward the global South. We will also need to maintain a tolerable relationship with China. Because we cannot afford to decouple from two superpowers at once.”

This means we will increasingly need to trade with countries that are not like us. And, according to Ulrik Vestergaard, our relationship with those countries must be far more equal than we have been accustomed to.

“That time is over, when we could march out with a moralizing, raised finger. We must meet those countries where they are. We need to be more cynical and more pragmatic in this world if we want to trade with anyone at all.”

Ulrik Vestergaard emphasizes that this does not mean the EU should shelve its values:

“I don’t believe we should abandon our values during this period, when we are relatively weak and not a superpower. But we must understand that we cannot simply pound the rest of the world over the head with our values and say, ‘If you don’t live up to them, just as we do, then we won’t trade with you.’”

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