German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said that Europe should form a “counterweight” to the United States whenever Washington “crosses red lines.”

In a guest article for German business newspaper Handelsblatt, Maas said Germany wants a “balanced partnership” with the United States, in which it “brings its weight where the US withdraws.”

“Single-handedly, we will fail in this task. The main goal of our foreign policy is therefore to build a sovereign, strong Europe,” Maas wrote.

Maas’ article comes in the backdrop of strained relations between the US and its European allies after US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the EU and pulled out of a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers.

Europe has been scrambling to persuade Tehran to remain in the 2015 accord. But with European firms wary of far-reaching US financial penalties, it’s proving to be a challenge.

Read more: Donald Trump’s trade spats with Europe, China and NAFTA ― What you need to know

More than a trillion euros in trade

The European Union is the US’ largest export market, accounting for about one-fifth of all US exports. Similarly, one-fifth of EU exports go to the United States. EU-US trade in goods and services was €1,069.3 billion in 2017. The EU imported €256.2 billion in goods from the US, and exported €375.8 billion.

EU trade surplus

The main exports and imports between the EU and US fall into the categories of machinery and vehicles, chemicals and other manufactured goods. Combined, they accounted for 89 percent of EU exports and imports with the US in 2017. In all three categories, as well as food and drink, the EU had a trade surplus. The US had a trade surplus in raw materials and energy.

Cars, machinery top exports

At €167 billion, machinery and vehicles were the largest EU export category to the US, accounting for 44.4 percent of goods exports. The €111.5 billion in machinery and transport equipment was the largest EU import from the US, accounting for 43.6 percent of imports.

Small part of trade pie

At the end of May, the Trump administration imposed a 25 percent tariff on EU steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum. Steel and aluminum exports to the United States were worth €3.58 billion in 2017.

Retaliatory tariffs

In response, the European Union has developed a list of products it may subject to retaliatory tariffs. These include typical American products like peanut butter, bourbon whiskey, Harley Davidson motorcycles, jeans and orange juice. The exports targeted by the EU are worth about €2.8 billion annually, according to EU officials.

Services include travel, education

For services, the EU imports amounted to €219.3 billion and exports €218 billion. The top services were in professional and management services, intellectual property, travel and education. About a third of EU-US trade consists of intra-company transfers.

Author: Chase Winter

EU payment system

Maas said Europe needs to set up payment systems independent of the US if it wants to save the nuclear deal.

“That’s why it is indispensable that we strengthen European autonomy by creating payment channels that are independent of the United States, a European Monetary Fund and an independent SWIFT system,” Maas wrote.

“Every day the deal is alive is better than the highly explosive crisis that would otherwise threaten the Middle East.”

Iran called on Europe to speed up efforts to save the deal after French oil group Total formally pulled out of a major gas project on Monday.

The EU has vowed to counter Trump’s renewed sanctions on Iran, including by means of a new law to shield European companies from punitive measures.

“Given the circumstances, it is of strategic importance that we tell Washington clearly: we want to work together,” Maas wrote. “But we will not allow you to hurt our interests without consulting us.”

ap/rt (AFP, Reuters)

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-wants-europe-to-form-a-counterweight-to-us/a-45168108

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Writing in the German daily Handelsblatt, Maas said “Europe should not allow the US to act over our heads and at our expense. For that reason it’s essential that we strengthen European autonomy by establishing payment channels that are independent of the US, creating a European Monetary Fund and building up an independent Swift system,” he wrote, cited by the FT.

Maas said it was vital for Europe to stick with the Iran deal. “Every day the agreement continues to exist is better than the highly explosive crisis that otherwise threatens the Middle East,” he said, with the unspoken message was even clearer: Europe no longer wants to be a vassal state to US monopoly over global payments, and will now aggressively pursue its own “Swift” network that is not subservient to Washington’s every whim.

Heiko Maas

Swift, a Belgium-based global payment network, enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions. The system’s management claims Swift is politically neutral and independent, although it has previously been used to block transactions and enforce US sanctions against various countries, most notably Iran.  In 2012, the Danish newspaper Berlingske wrote that US authorities managed to seize money being transferred from a Danish businessman to a German bank for a batch of US-sanctioned Cuban cigars. The transaction was made in US dollars, which allowed Washington to block it.

According to Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute, a Berlin-based think-tank, Maas’s intervention was the “strongest call yet for EU financial and monetary autonomy vis-à-vis US.”

The German foreign minister’s article highlights the depth of the dilemma facing European politicians as they struggle to keep the Iran deal alive while coping with the fallout of US sanctions imposed by Mr Trump against companies doing business with Tehran.

Maas also called for the creation of a “balanced partnership” with the US in which the Europeans filled the gaps left where the US withdrew from the world. Europe must, he said, “form a counterweight when the US crosses red lines”.

As the FT adds, the EU has vowed to protect European businesses from punitive measures adopted by Washington, but that has failed to convince EU companies, who are more concerned about maintaining their access to the lucrative US market than in the more modest opportunities presented by Iran.

Last month Washington rebuffed a high-level European plea to exempt crucial industries from sanctions. Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, and Steven Mnuchin, Treasury secretary, formally rejected an appeal for carve-outs in finance, energy and healthcare made by ministers from Germany, France, the UK and the EU.

Swift is also affected: unless it wins an exemption from sanctions, it will be required by the US to cut off targeted Iranian banks from its network by early November or face possible countermeasures against both its board members and the financial institutions that employ them. These could include asset freezes and US travel bans for the individuals, and restrictions on banks’ ability to do business in the US.

Maas’s stark warning against US domination of global payments comes with relations between Germany and the US in their worst state for decades. Mr Trump has chastised Berlin over its large trade surplus, its relatively low military spending and its support for Nord Stream 2, a new gas pipeline that will bring Russian gas directly to Germany.

Meanwhile, Berlin has looked on in dismay as Mr Trump has withdrawn the US from the Iran deal and the Paris climate treaty, imposed import tariffs on EU steel and aluminium and appeared to question America’s commitment to Nato.

In short: Europe has finally had enough and it plans on hitting back at Trump where it truly hurts: the money.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-21/germany-calls-global-payment-system-independent-us

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BERLIN: Angela Merkel finally begins her fourth term as chancellor Wednesday, ending nearly six months of political deadlock in Germany since September’s inconclusive election.

As her conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats get ready to govern together once again, here’s a look at the main priorities set out in their coalition agreement, which will guide policy-making for the next four years.

Europe
The power pact thrashed out between the two sides symbolically opens with a chapter called “a new start for Europe” — signalling that efforts to reform the EU will top the incoming government’s agenda as the bloc grapples with rising nationalism, security concerns and an unpredictable US ally in President Donald Trump.

“In a world that’s becoming more complex… it is essential that Europeans stick together,” the new vice-chancellor and finance minister Olaf Scholz said at the coalition treaty’s signing ceremony.

The accord welcomes French President Emmanuel Macron’s ambitious push to overhaul the bloc, pledging to “in close partnership with France, sustainably strengthen and reform the eurozone so that the euro can better withstand global crises”.

As well as agreeing to bolster EU foreign and defence policy, the parties say they are ready to raise Germany’s contributions to the European Union’s budget once Britain leaves.

They also support the creation of a European Monetary Fund that could lend to countries in crisis, but offer only cautious backing for Macron’s idea of a eurozone investment budget — which Berlin fears could translate into a transfer of German cash to troubled economies.

The document makes no mention of Macron’s controversial proposal for a common eurozone finance minister.

Merkel plans to meet with Macron in Paris in coming days to discuss the proposals ahead of an EU summit late next week.

Immigration
Anger over Merkel’s 2015 decision to open the country’s doors to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers led to a surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which scored almost 13 percent in September’s polls.

Smarting from the backlash, the government now aims to cap the annual intake of people seeking safe haven to around 200,000, in line with a long-standing demand of the CSU.

CSU heavyweight and new interior minister Horst Seehofer has vowed to quickly put in place a “master plan” to speed up asylum procedures and deportations. “The number of expulsions must increase significantly,” he said.

At the EU level, Merkel says she continues to expect member states to take in their allocated share of refugees — anathema to some central and eastern European nations.

The chancellor has also reiterated the need to tackle “the root causes of migration” with development aid for the countries of origin, while better securing the bloc’s outer borders.

Future-proofing economy
Europe’s powerhouse economy is booming, with workers enjoying high wages and record-low unemployment.

But that has done little to assuage concerns about globalisation and automation in the workplace, which Scholz says has left “many citizens afraid for their own professional future”.

With its flush public coffers, Merkel’s fourth government aims to address these fears through investments in infrastructure, an offensive to improve the nation’s creaking internet networks, pension reform and more funding for education and life-long learning.

“We are living through a period of change that will probably transform the world as much as the shift from an agrarian to an industrial society,” Merkel has said.

Acknowledging concerns about growing inequality in wealthy Germany, she added that “our country’s prosperity must reach all”.

But while her team is willing to loosen the purse strings to get Germany future-ready, there’s no question of taking on new debts. As in previous years, the coalition partners have pledged to stick to a balanced budget.

Source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2018/03/14/merkel-4-0-top-priorities-of-germanys-new-government/

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