German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday renewed calls for trade talks with the United States after France rejected an EU mandate to try to end their tariff row.
“It is regrettable that France in the end voted against this mandate but maybe we will convince them. I think we must try to end trade rows with the US through talks and reasonable solutions, because otherwise our economy will find itself in choppy waters,” she said.
The United States and the European Union agreed last summer to discuss cutting tariffs on non-auto industrial goods but that effort was curtailed by France in April, which wants farm products to be excluded from the talks.