Germany sees no immediate solution to the trade dispute with the US, and Europe must act decisively in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on metals, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier said yesterday.
Trump stunned allies on Sunday by backing out of a joint communique agreed by G7 leaders in Canada that had mentioned the need for “free, fair and mutually beneficial trade” and the importance of fighting protectionism.
Trump, who has shocked allies by hitting them with tariffs on steel and aluminum, also said he might double down by hitting the auto industry, a particularly sensitive issue for Germany whose car industry relies heavily on the US market.
“It is important that the Europeans act decisively,” Altmaier told Deutschlandfunk public radio. “At the moment it seems that no solution is in sight, at least not in the short term.”
“We are ready to discuss trade imbalances. We are ready to consider factual arguments, but we believe this should happen among friends and partners and not through reciprocal confrontation,” he said.
Altmaier said that the G7 leaders’ summit had produced “setbacks,” adding that further tariffs by the Trump administration would not only harm its allies, but also the US economy.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday said Trump’s backing out of the G7 final communique via Twitter was “sobering and a bit depressing.”
She promised an EU response to the steel and aluminum tariffs in line with WTO rules.
Merkel was scheduled to hold talks yesterday IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Secretary-General Angel Gurria and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.
Unbowed, Trump tweeted anew yesterday morning from Singapore, repeating his criticism of US trade policies with Canada — he also took aim at Germany — in a multi-tweet rant that went beyond 200 words all told.
At one point the US leader wrote, “Justin [Trudeau] acts hurt when called out!”
“Why should I, as President of the United States, allow countries to continue to make Massive Trade Surpluses, as they have for decades, while our Farmers, Workers & Taxpayers have such a big and unfair price to pay?’’ he tweeted.
Trump ‘s advisers took up attack in appearances on Sunday’s television news shows, leveling more withering and unprecedented criticism against the Canadian prime minister, branding him a back-stabber unworthy of Trump’s time.
“There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door,” White House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro, said on Fox News Sunday.
Trump “did the courtesy to Justin Trudeau to travel up to Quebec for that summit. He had other things, bigger things, on his plate in Singapore,” Navarro said.
“He did him a favor and he was even willing to sign that socialist communique. And what did Trudeau do as soon as the plane took off from Canadian airspace? Trudeau stuck our president in the back. That will not stand,” Navarro added.
US National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow suggested Trump saw Trudeau as trying to weaken his hand before the summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, saying Trump would not “let a Canadian prime minister push him around… Kim must not see American weakness.”
Trudeau pulled a “sophomoric political stunt for domestic consumption” that amounted to “a betrayal,” said Kudlow, who appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and CBS’ Face the Nation.
In response to the initial tweets critical of her country and prime minister, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said her nation “does not conduct its diplomacy through ad hominem attacks.”
Additional reporting by AP
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese