Finland’s trade minister has fired an early broadside against EU plans for tougher screening of Chinese takeovers and other foreign direct investments, saying that they will achieve little while risking a trade war.

The comments, coming from a minister of one of the dozen or so EU countries that has a national investment screening system in place, will dent the hopes of France, Germany and Italy that a speedy agreement can be reached on the initiative, which was a campaign pledge of French president Emmanuel Macron.

Kai Mykk?nen, Finland’s minister for foreign trade and development, said the European Commission plan, which seeks to improve co-ordination between countries and give Brussels a say on takeovers, could easily do more harm than good.