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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is a geopolitical celebrity these days. In a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that went viral in foreign-policy circles, he pleaded for the leaders of other middle powers to join Canada in fighting against great-power coercion.

But while Carney’s speech made the headlines, the European Union was already implementing the diversification strategy that Carney called for, most notably in trade. In the past seven months, the bloc has inked free-trade agreements: with Australia, India, Indonesia, and Mercosur, a club of South American economies. The value of these four agreements goes well beyond economics. Brussels is positioning itself as the go-to alternative for the many middle powers around the world that want to avoid a binary choice between the United States and China. In this, Europe is having genuine success.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is a geopolitical celebrity these days. In a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that went viral in foreign-policy circles, he pleaded for the leaders of other middle powers to join Canada in fighting against great-power coercion.

But while Carney’s speech made the headlines, the European Union was already implementing the diversification strategy that Carney called for, most notably in trade. In the past seven months, the bloc has inked free-trade agreements: with Australia, India, Indonesia, and Mercosur, a club of South American economies. The value of these four agreements goes well beyond economics. Brussels is positioning itself as the go-to alternative for the many middle powers around the world that want to avoid a binary choice between the United States and China. In this, Europe is having genuine success.

This success was not obvious from the start. The European Commission has an old habit of announcing groundbreaking trade deals that do not survive ratification by EU member states. Just a decade ago, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was supposed to lock the United States and Europe into a golden era of trade and investment. The deal collapsed in the mid-2010s after European left-wing parties and activist groups generated mass protests against the deal.

The latest EU free-trade agreements have yet to be implemented. This time, however, there is reason to be optimistic about the new deals and their life expectancy. U.S. President Donald Trump is an obvious driver of the EU’s free-trade endeavors as Europeans seek alternatives to Washington’s tariff salvos, a National........

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