EU and Chinese officials meeting in Brussels on Tuesday proclaimed their summit as a win-win, but far more striking was the big loser: Donald Trump.

European Council President Donald Tusk declared a "breakthrough" on some of the EU's major trade disagreements — including a joint pledge to back tough World Trade Organization rules on industrial subsidies. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: "Today, we are making good on our joint commitment to uphold and to update the rules-based global order that has served us so well."

And Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, appearing at a news conference with Tusk and Juncker, declared the agreements reached at the summit "something good for China's reform and opening-up endeavors, and good for European unity and prosperity."

While Li and his European counterparts were celebrating what he called "concrete goals and outcomes," a newspaper close to the Chinese Communist Party cast doubt on Trump's suggestion that he would reach a deal to end his trade war with China within four weeks.

The newspaper, the Global Times, which is affiliated with the People's Daily, the official publication of the party's central committee, published an editorial calling Trump's prediction "just an uncertain timetable" and it warned that any effort to force through a deal could have serious negative consequences, the South China Morning Post reported.

"The word you have heard most here today is reciprocity" — Senior EU diplomat

In Brussels, during a series of summit meetings at which officials worked hard to focus on common interests, perhaps the foremost imperative for Brussels and Beijing was to showcase the failure of Trump's belligerence — his slapping of unilateral tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods and his threats of punitive levies against EU-made automobiles — in achieving real gains for the U.S. vis-à-vis the world's biggest trading powers.

Last week, Tusk urged EU leaders not to support a joint statement with China, saying there has not been sufficient cooperation from the Chinese side to address European concerns on a range of issues. But an intense 72 hours of negotiations led to key breakthroughs, particularly on the issue of industrial subsidies, as well as on geographical indications, and it yielded a robust joint statement.

For the EU, it was an illustration that a bloc known for soft power could take a harder line, and also that its commitment to dialogue is a source of strength not weakness. It was also a chance to show that China is more than willing to deal with the EU collectively.

For China, it was an opportunity to portray itself as compromising and reasonable — essentially a preemptive move against any suggestion by Trump that failure to reach a deal was the result of Chinese intransigence.

For the Americans, it was also a stark illustration of the opportunity Trump and his administration has missed to team up with the Europeans in pressing China for a swifter opening of its markets to the West, and quicker reforms to its legal and regulatory systems.

"We have the same criticism of the situation in the Chinese market and we use different ways of addressing them," a senior EU diplomat said. "One is cooperative and in dialogue and negotiation, and the other one is with the use of unilateral measures outside of the WTO scheme, and we have never been shy about addressing these differences of method."

Elephant in the room

Trump seemed to be the protectionist elephant in the room throughout the EU’s negotiation process with the Chinese, according to EU officials who said that at numerous points, they sensed China was stalling on various issues, awaiting the outcome of their simultaneous talks with Washington.

The U.S. president, by virtue of his heavy tariffs, has more muscle and may yet extract more in the way of hard concessions from China than the EU, which mainly won more in political commitments. But in a twist, it was the EU that clinched its symbolic victory first, with Trump ironically providing extra incentive for Beijing to reach a deal with the Europeans.

But the EU’s own willingness to take a tougher line also helped.

At an EU summit last month, leaders warned that they were prepared to take more aggressive steps against economic competitors who engaged in practices that the bloc views as unfair. Although China was not mentioned by name, the summit focused heavily on preparation for Tuesday's meeting with the Chinese and it was quite clear that Beijing was the main source of the EU's concerns.

"The EU must also safeguard its interests in the light of unfair practices of third countries, making full use of trade defence instruments and our public procurement rules, as well as ensuring effective reciprocity for public procurement with third countries," the leaders wrote in their formal conclusions. "The European Council calls for resuming discussions on the EU’s international procurement instrument — the new European foreign investment screening framework will enable member states to address investments that threaten security or public order."

After Tuesday's meeting, officials said the message appears to have been heard — both in terms of the EU's clear resolve, but also in its commitment to respond within the rules-based framework.

"The word you have heard most here today is reciprocity," the senior diplomat said. "When you look at the European Council of two weeks ago, you will see in the economic part, the decision of the leaders: We will use more and more measures." Noting the emphasis on procurement, the diplomat added: "We are not talking about the unilateral imposition of tariffs for national security purposes. It will still be the EU way."

The U.S. way was also on display in Brussels Tuesday as the American ambassador to the EU met with officials from the European Parliament and again slammed the EU over its trade dispute with Washington.

We need the EU to take a strategic worldview, rather than an unhelpful, overly reactionary stance. Regulations and other types of non-tariff barriers, including thinly veiled anti-Americanism, is not a sustainable model if the EU wishes to remain a competitor on the world stage. pic.twitter.com/PtuEqTfrJW — Ambassador Sondland (@USAmbEU) April 9, 2019

The tone was remarkably different at the news conference at the European Council, where Li seemed to make repeated references to the ongoing stress with the United States, and stressed the shared commitment of China and the EU to a rules-based system.

"We both believe that we need to uphold multilateralism, respect the international law and respect for fundamental norms governing international relations with the U.N. at its core," Li said. "We need to uphold the U.N. charter and its purposes and principles as well as international order. We also believe that we need to uphold a multilateral trading system with the WTO rules at its core."

EU officials acknowledged Tuesday's joint statement largely reflects a continued effort to achieve changes previously agreed, but where China had been slow to follow up. They insisted that there are now concrete timeframes for action on numerous issues, including on changing WTO rules with regard to industrial subsidies and reaching final agreement on protections for local food names known as geographical indications.

In the joint statement, they pledged to make "decisive progress" this year on their investment protection agreement, so that an "ambitious" deal can be concluded in 2020. The EU and China also agreed to a joint study on improving the inter-connectedness of rail systems.

"Our cooperation simply makes sense for both sides" — Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission

EU officials said China has committed to reducing its so-called negative list of sectors of the Chinese economy that are excluded from foreign competition and investment. They said they expect Beijing to issue a revised, trimmed-down list in June.

In a sign of the concerted effort to reach consensus, officials mostly sidestepped the controversy surrounding Huawei and 5G technology and issued a vague joint pledge to "promote ... responsible state behavior in cyberspace."

Juncker, who faced off with Trump at a meeting in Washington last July and convinced the U.S. president to hold off on tariffs on EU-made cars, said Europe's relationship with China is a matter of mutual benefit.

"Our cooperation simply makes sense for both sides," he said. "The European Union is China's largest trading partner, and China is the EU's second largest."