BERLIN, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- German economy minister Peter Altmaier has criticized the trade and sanctions policies of U.S. president Donald Trump on Sunday.
Speaking to the newspaper "Bild am Sonntag", Altmaier warned of the harmful impact of unilateral economic measures adopted by Trump.
"This trade war slows and destroys economic growth, while producing new uncertainties," the minister said. He argued that U.S. consumers would hereby themselves bear the brunt of costs created by punitive import tariffs.
Altmaier offered careful praise for recent developments in the trade conflict between the European Union (EU) and United States. The minister emphasized that the concessions won by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in negotiations with Trump could "only be a first step" towards a wider reversal of the U.S. trend towards more protectionism.
"Our goal is a global trade order with lower tariffs, less protectionism and open markets," Altmaier told the newspaper. Whereas the interim agreement between Juncker and Trump would protect "hundreds of thousands of jobs in Germany and Europe", it remained to be seen whether Washington would hold actually off on earlier threats to expand tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the bloc to automotive products more generally.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and German business associations have repeatedly called for mutual tariff reductions as a means to repair strained transatlantic ties and help improve the export competitiveness of the U.S. economy.
Besides criticism of U.S. protectionism, the minister also voiced German opposition to the re-imposition of economic sanctions by Trump against Iran.
"We will not let Washington dictate to us with whom we can do business, and we will therefore uphold the Vienna Nuclear Agreement to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Iran," he said.
Dagmar von Bohnstein, German business delegate in Iran, has highlighted in a public plea for help to the federal government in Berlin that domestic firms in Iran are in urgent need of political solutions which enable them to complete financial transactions while bypassing U.S. capital markets.
"The biggest problem is to find corporate banking providers which can complete transactions with Iranian counterparties without being penalized by U.S. sanctions," von Bohnstein told press.
Speaking to "Bild am Sonntag", Altmaier stressed that Berlin would continue to support domestic companies operating in Iran regardless of U.S. sanctions, and was working together with other European partners to establish alternative payments systems to prevent a resulting interruption of trade and investment flows.
