German politicians and business leaders reacted with relief, surprise, and some skepticism to the apparent trade tariff breakthrough that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker achieved on his trip to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump.
German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier was among the first to express his approval, tweeting that the new deal would “avoid trade war & save millions of jobs!”
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also took to Twitter to declare Juncker’s negotiations a triumph for European solidarity. “The agreement in the trade row has shown that when Europe presents a united front our word has weight,” the minister tweeted. “We are not opponents of the USA. Hopefully that insight will once again mature into what it was not long ago: something that goes without saying.”
But Germany’s business chiefs were a little more cautious. “The solutions that have been presented are moving in the right direction, but a proper portion of skepticism remains,” said Eric Schweitzer, president of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK). “We’re still some distance away from equal negotiations. The unjustified car tariffs are not completely off the table.”
Dieter Kempf, the president of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), made similar noises, telling the DPA news agency: “The spiral of tariffs in transatlantic trade has been stopped for now. Now these words have to be followed with actions.”
Meanwhile, opposition political parties pointed out that Trump had developed a reputation for reversing his decisions, or even denying his own statements. Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, deputy leader of the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP), would only say that “it remains to be seen,” whether the agreement would be work out. The US president “has often shown himself to be unpredictable,” he said in a statement.
Katharina Dröge, trade policy spokeswoman for the Green party, also argued that the deal included unpleasant concessions to the US, which, she said, contains “the most problematic parts” of the old free trade agreement TTIP. “So the EU has entered into a game on Trump’s terms. Juncker hasn’t produced a solution, just medium-term conflicts within the EU,” she said.