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Agency Report
Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany’s main conservative party and frontrunner to be the country’s next chancellor, is advocating for a new attempt at a transatlantic free trade agreement with the US under President-elect Donald Trump.
“We need a positive agenda with the US that benefits both American and European consumers equally,” Merz told dpa on Thursday.
“A new European-American initiative for mutual free trade could prevent a dangerous tariff spiral,” Merz added.
Negotiations between the EU and the US on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a comprehensive trade and investment agreement, were halted by Trump at the start of his first term in office in 2017 and have been put on ice ever since.
Merz also expressed concern about tougher conditions for the European economy under the incoming US administration, which will be inaugurated on January 20.
He suggested that Europe may need to prepare for the US, as Trump has announced, potentially imposing high import tariffs. “Our response to this should not be to start imposing tariffs as well,” he said.
