Merkel ally warns
protectionism would hurt U.S. consumers
Send a link to a friend
[March 09, 2017]
By Andreas Rinke
BERLIN
(Reuters) - It is as hard to imagine how the U.S. government could force
American consumers to stop buying German cars as it is to conceive of
the German government persuading Germans to buy U.S.-made cars, a key
ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
Juergen Hardt, the German government's coordinator for transatlantic
policies, said in an interview with Reuters that it was not possible for
the government to try to intervene to reduce Germany's trade surpluses
and that economies perform better thanks to competition - rather than
isolation.
"I don't see any possibility of artificially reducing German trade
surpluses," said Hardt, the foreign policy expert in parliament for
Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats ahead of Merkel's trip to meet
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
"Do we really want to try to force German citizens to buy American
cars?" Hardt added. "Does the American president want to force Americans
to stop buying German cars in the future? Do we want to artificially
make German cars more expensive with taxes so that consumers buy more
foreign products?"
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Mar/09/images/ads/current/mks_lda_POTGOLD_2017.png)
The United States is Germany's biggest single export destination and
U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that his administration will
impose a border tax of 35 percent on cars that German carmaker BMW
BMWG.DE plans to build at a new plant in Mexico and export to the U.S.
Germany's trade surplus climbed to a record high in 2016, rising to
252.9 billion euros ($270.05 billion), surpassing the previous high of
244.3 billion euros in 2015.
Dismissing criticism from Trump administration trade adviser Peter
Navarro that Germany was exploiting a weak euro to gain a trade
advantage, Hardt said the quality of German exports was the key to their
success, not exchange rates.
As well as being foreign policy spokesman for Merkel's conservative
Christian Democratic Union, Hardt is also Germany's senior
parliamentarian on transatlantic relations and knows the direction of
German government thinking.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/030917pics/busine69.jpg)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the German lower house of
parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Axel
Schmidt
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Mar/09/images/ads/current/chestnut_health_lda_EDUCATION_2017.png)
Navarro, head of Trump's new National Trade Council, had accused Germany of
using a "grossly undervalued" euro to gain a competitive advantage.
Navarro said on Monday the $65 billion U.S. trade deficit with Germany was "one
of the most difficult" trade issues, and bilateral discussions were needed to
reduce it outside of European Union restrictions.
On
Monday he depicted chronic trade deficits as a threat to national security and
said the Trump administration would seek to "reclaim" parts supply chains that
had moved overseas.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Tuesday firmly rejected the U.S.
criticism, setting the stage for a heated debate on trade when G20 policymakers
meet next week in the German spa town of Baden-Baden.
Hardt also defended Germany's strong trade performance as the result of the
competitiveness of the country's industry.
"German products are almost always the most expensive in any given segment,"
said Hardt. "German companies are competing with quality as their argument and
not any kind of price dumping."
He added that if the United States wants to become truly "great" again, then it
should stand up to the global competition and not allow it to be weakened
through isolation.
"That's actually an economic truism which one needs to remind some people in
Washington about," added Hardt.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Mar/09/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png)
(Writing by Erik Kirschbaum)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |