Germany wants to avert trade war with G20 steel summit: Zypries

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany hopes that a G20 steel summit on Thursday in Berlin can help to avert a trade war, Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries told Reuters on Monday, warning that Europe would impose countermeasures if the United States should impose new tariffs.

“I hope that we’ll manage to agree on a joint final communique, which is not yet certain at the moment, because we are still negotiating,” Zypries said.

The threat of a trade war on steel has not been averted yet and the G20 summit, which will also be attended by several OECD countries, should help to reach common ground, Zypries told Reuters.

“We want multilateral agreements, we want to have jointly coordinated action between the states of the world,” Zypries said. Germany currently holds the G20 presidency.

“Each country has to realize that it’s not good to act unilaterally – neither in the form of imposing trade restrictions nor in the form of developing its own ideas about how much it should export,” Zypries added.

Asked if the European Union would impose countermeasures should U.S. President Donald Trump decide to impose new tariffs on steel, Zypries said: “We still stand ready to take countermeasures if the Americans should start to impose such tariffs. We would be forced to do this.”

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