Speaking at a business conference of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, Chancellor Merkel struck back at Trump’s claims of a trade deficit with the European Union, noting that trade calculations were outdated.
“Trade surpluses are still calculated in a pretty old-fashioned way, based only on goods. But if you include services in the trade balance, the US has a big surplus with Europe,” she said.
The chancellor elaborated that German investment in the United States was notably higher than the other way round following Trump’s outburst on Twitter.
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Earlier this week, Trump took to Twitter to slam the G7 summit, instructing US representatives not to endorse the final communique in response to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “false statements.”
Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 9 июня 2018 г.
POTUS also claimed that the US had a “$800 billion trade deficit,” pointing out other countries “massive trade surpluses.”
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? Not fair to the PEOPLE of America! $800 Billion Trade Deficit…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 11 июня 2018 г.
….And add to that the fact that the U.S. pays close to the entire cost of NATO-protecting many of these same countries that rip us off on Trade (they pay only a fraction of the cost-and laugh!). The European Union had a $151 Billion Surplus-should pay much more for Military!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 11 июня 2018 г.
….Germany pays 1% (slowly) of GDP towards NATO, while we pay 4% of a MUCH larger GDP. Does anybody believe that makes sense? We protect Europe (which is good) at great financial loss, and then get unfairly clobbered on Trade. Change is coming!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 11 июня 2018 г.
Merkel and other world leaders are seeking to handle Trump’s trade policies, since he announced a decision to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from a number of states, including the EU, Mexico and Canada, which, in turn, have promised to retaliate. Trump has also reportedly mulled putting a 25 percent import tax on European cars – something that would particularly affect German carmakers.
