Amid Tariff Chaos, U.S. Allies Try to Redraw the Trade Map

Trade chaos is forcing America’s allies closer together, and further from the United States. And as that happens, the European Union is trying to position itself at the center of a new global trade map.

The 27-nation bloc learned this weekend that America will subject it to 30 percent tariffs starting Aug. 1. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the E.U. executive branch, responded with a pledge to keep negotiating, and to retaliate if necessary.

But that was not the entire strategy. Europe, like many of the United States’ trading partners, is also looking for more reliable friends.

“Meanwhile, we continue to deepen our global partnerships, firmly anchored in the principles of rules-based international trade,” Ms. von der Leyen said.

She will make good on that starting Sunday. Ms. von der Leyen is scheduled to give a speech alongside Indonesia’s president. Just as Mr. Trump threatens to put hefty tariffs on the Asian nation, the European Union is working to relax trade barriers.

It is a split screen that is becoming typical. On one side, the United States sows uncertainty as it blows up weeks of painstaking negotiations and escalates tariff threats. On the other, the European Union and other American trading partners are forging closer ties, laying the groundwork for a global trading system that revolves less and less around an increasingly fickle United States.