How Donald Trump could affect EU trade relations with China and U.S.

The reelection of Donald Trump could have a major impact on trade relations between the European Union and its two biggest economic partners: the U.S. and China. According to analysts, the European Union was caught off guard by Trump's protectionist policies during his first term in office and will be looking to avoid history repeating itself.

In March 2018 Donald Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on European steel and 10 percent duty on aluminum. The U.S. under the Trump administration also became embroiled in a broad-ranging trade dispute with China.

Following Donald Trump's election win, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that in a world of herbivores and carnivores, the European Union must be prepared to defend itself.

"Most omnivores tend to be scavengers and I'm not so sure whether that was an appropriate allegory but I think what we're looking at here, especially from the perspective of France is that it needs Europe to be as nimble as possible," said Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, Director of the think tank Ecipe.

"France is actually one of the biggest commercial rivals of the United States, much more than China," he added.

Before the U.S. public went to the polls on November 5th, the EU already had a task force in place to prepare for the possibility of a Trump presidency. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the first step is to engage with America's commander in chief.

The EU has floated the idea of increasing its intake of U.S. liquified natural gas as a way to appease the new administration in Washington.

Hosuk Lee-Makiyama says the EU has a series of guardrails in place should such efforts fail.

"We have an autonomous regulation that allows us to impose counter sanctions and we have also a number of regulations under the pretext of environmental protection that keeps U.S. agricultural products out," he said. Adding, "we also have something called the anti-coercion instrument."

These looming potential trade tensions with Washington come as a dispute over electric vehicle tariffs has fueled trade relations between the EU and China over recent months.

With an uncertain road ahead, the EU's next potential foreign affairs chief has laid out her vision regarding economic foreign policy at a hearing at the European Parliament.

"That our economy does well, that our economy is competitive. Sometimes we have maybe let our guard down in this regard that we don't defend our interests as much as we should defend our interests," Kallas said, addressing questions from members of the European Parliament.

Analysts say the three way relationship between China, the U.S. and the EU is far from black and white.

Now the world waits for the Trump presidency to begin and whether the three powers will seek a carrot or stick approach to international trade.