It's interesting to note how different countries within the union are taking about who to include and who to exclude.

It clearly goes beyond the ostentatious justification for this of presenting a united front against Chinese protectionism.

The French representative talks about limiting it to only the EU27, which wouldn't even include the Nordics, who are almost EU in all but name. France would really like to be a big fish in a smaller pond, it would benefit their industry the most that way.

Poland’s economic development minister, Michał Baranowski, said it was too early to say whether countries such as Switzerland, the UK, Japan, Australia and Canada would be in or out, adding: “All these countries are in the mix of the discussion.”

This statement seems to implicitly include the Nordics in the arrangement by not mentioning them. In contrast to France, Poland's industry would benefit more from open trade with more countries outside the EU bloc.

It shouldn't be a surprise of course that politicians are prioritising their own countries' interests in such discussions - if anything, that's their job.