Response To Trump: Merkel warns against protectionism

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Saturday against protectionist tendencies of US President-elect Donald Trump, citing lessons learned in the 2008 global financial crash and stressing the need to “move forward together”. When asked if she believed “protectionist tendencies” by Trump could pose a threat, Merkel recalled the example of the 2008 global financial crisis, which “came from the United States”. On the campaign trail Trump notably threatened to take protectionist measures against Chinese and Mexican imports and claimed a first success with a decision by US motor giant Ford not to build a new plant in Mexico. Trump’s attitude has fuelled concern in Germany; on Thursday Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was “perplexed” by Trump comparing the leak of a dossier of unsubstantiated allegations against him to something that could have happened in Nazi Germany.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2017.

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