Just as President Donald Trump had given national security as a
reason for threatening punitive tariffs on German cars, "We
should think about the strategic significance of the auto
industry for the European Union so we can prepare an exchange
with the U.S.," she said.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Europe, and Germany in
particular, for running large trade surpluses over the U.S.,
promising to put an end to what he saw as the continent
free-riding on U.S. prosperity.
Speaking at an event to mark 70 years of Germany's "social
market" economic model, she said the market dominance of giant
U.S. internet platforms also posed a challenge to Europe's
social model.
"The platform economy is a big problem," she said. "It
challenges both our competition authorities and the EU's, and
raises the question of whether they need to get involved in the
matter of the big concentration of big platforms from the U.S."
This week, Merkel pushed strongly against Trump's view of the
U.S.-EU trade relationship, saying that, if the repatriated
European profits of U.S. internet giants were included, then the
U.S. ran a current account surplus.
But, despite hinting at retaliatory measures that might be in
the offing if the U.S. stuck to its hard line on trade, she
stressed that she would prefer to stick to a multilateral path.
"You could of course say that in time of disruptive change,
completely different methods are needed," she said. "But the
outcome of this approach is so uncertain, and so much is at
stake, that we have to at least attempt multilateral deals."
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Michelle Martin and
Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
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