Heiko Maas: Europe will not give in to Trump's threats on trade

 

Europe will not bow to threats from the United States in a trade dispute and wants to resolve it via negotiations, Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said today before European Commission talks with Washington on the issue.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will meet U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the imposition of U.S. tariffs on EU steel and aluminum and his threats to expand those measures to European cars.

"It is good that Jean-Claude Juncker will be in Washington tomorrow to talk and to seek a solution but we are not heading to negotiations with a pistol at our chest. I don’t think threats bring us closer to a solution," Reuters cited the Foreign Minister as saying.

"We in Europe must stick together...I hope that we succeed in resolving this via consensus but we will not be threatened and climb down so easily," Maas told German public television.

The German minister, about to visit Japan and South Korea, who are also threatened by U.S. tariffs, said no one had an interest in new and higher tariffs.

"In the end, all sides would lose, also the Americans," Maas said, adding he hoped that U.S. officials would realize this.