Trade crusader

AS the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs from 2010 to 2014, Cecilia Malmström dealt with some of the toughest challenges facing the Union, tackling emotionally wrought issues like human trafficking, migration, refugees, asylum and terrorism. So when, for her second term as a Commissioner, she was given the trade portfolio in 2014, the Swede psyched herself up for something "much more technical", she tells BT. Very interesting but much less emotional, she had expected of her new job. "But I was wrong!"

Negotiating tariffs and quotas, fleshing out the nitty-gritty of trade agreements, is clearly a different ballgame from issues around people fleeing conflict and seeking asylum, if no less complex and challenging. "But trade has become quite emotional as well", as it has turned out.

"Maybe not in Singapore, but in Europe, in the US, in many other countries, protectionism, anti-globalisation feelings, have indeed created a lot of emotions, and a lot of political sensitivities and challenges," she says. "So it (the trade portfolio) is much less technical than I thought it would be, which is of course fascinating, but indeed, we're now navigating in a world where we need each other more than ever." Which is why she is in Singapore - the European Union's biggest trading partner in Asean, and home to 11,000 EU companies - today in early March, and on a plane just about every week, meeting with trade ministers, businesses and youths around the world, conveying a simple message: If other doors are closing, the EU's will stay open.