Trade tariffs issue dominates Germany – China Summit

DW: Donald Trump’s trade war threats likely dominated Angela Merkel’s meeting with the Chinese premier. But could rallying around a common economic foe push concerns over human rights and business practices to the side?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Berlin on Monday carried more weight than usual, thanks to US President Donald Trump’s apparent attempts to start a trade war with the rest of the world.

“We are interested in friction-free trade,” Merkel said during a press conference on Monday afternoon, before emphasizing that both Berlin and China are committed to “multilateral order.” She also welcomed the fact that China’s financial markets had been opened to German firms, and that the Chinese firm CATL had announced a plan to open a battery factory for electric cars in eastern Germany.

For his part, Li said that free trade was vital for “revitalizing the world economy.”

A statement by Merkel’s party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), was keen to underline that “Germany and China are united by their interest in working together on progress and solutions for great, global issues.”

And yet even friendly words from the CDU couldn’t hide the ongoing antagonism between Germany and China — after all, just like the US, Germany has been complaining for some time that German companies don’t get fair access to Chinese markets, and that German technology and expertise is too often copied or stolen in China.