Germany ‘rejects’ US steel tariffs: Merkel spokesman
Frankfurt am Main, (MILLAT ONLINE):Berlin “rejects” President Donald Trump’s decision to impose hefty tariffs on steel and aluminium imports,
a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday.
“The federal government rejects such tariffs… the problem of global overcapacity in the steel and
aluminium sectors cannot be solved by this unilateral measure from the United States,” Steffen Seibert
told journalists in Berlin.
“These tariffs will have painful effects on the international trade of our steel and aluminium
industry,” he added.
While Germany will watch “very closely” details of the tariffs when they emerge next week
and their impact on the German economy, Seibert said, it is up to the European Commission to
define the response from European Union countries to the US move.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker had “rightly” warned on Thursday that
the EU would present countermeasures to the Trump tariffs, Seibert said.
“We stand fully side-by-side with the European Commission,” he added, although “a trade
war would be in nobody’s interest”.