{"id":789318,"date":"2026-02-26T02:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/789318\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T02:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:36:13","slug":"merz-calls-for-rebalancing-of-germanys-unhealthy-trade-ties-with-china-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/789318\/","title":{"rendered":"Merz calls for rebalancing of Germany\u2019s \u2018unhealthy\u2019 trade ties with China \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In advance of Merz\u2019s trip, some German business leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/friedrich-merz-china-beijing-germany-inc-reels-from-shock\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">called on the chancellor to take a harder line<\/a> on Chinese industrial policies that lead to price advantages for its companies \u2014\u00a0including subsidies, deliberate dumping and an undervalued currency.<\/p>\n<p>Merz seemed to respond to that pressure, calling on China to level the playing field. &#8220;Competition between companies must be fair,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We need transparency, we need reliability, and we also need compliance with jointly established rules.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The chancellor also said he aimed to shrink a trade deficit that has quadrupled since 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis dynamic is unhealthy,\u201d Merz said. \u201cWe are therefore addressing it and want to find ways to reduce this trade deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Merz hailed \u201cthe potential that still exists\u201d in relations with China, saying that Chinese leaders had agreed to order up to 120 aircraft from Airbus. Merz is traveling with a delegation of some 30 executives and said other business deals are in the pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>Although China\u2019s importance to Germany as an export market has declined in relative terms in recent years, it remained the sixth-largest destination for German exports in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Merz said he also asked Chinese leaders to \u201cuse their influence\u201d to end Russia\u2019s aggression in Ukraine, including by halting the export of dual-use goods that the Kremlin could use to wage war.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also know that signals from China are taken very seriously in Moscow,\u201d Merz said. \u201cThis applies to words as well as deeds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In advance of Merz\u2019s trip, some German business leaders called on the chancellor to take a harder line&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[1395,2437,1442,3378,1396,1214,1945,11070,1824,5167,12,31929,332,1201,657,771,26,1773],"class_list":["post-789318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-china","tag-companies","tag-competition","tag-currency","tag-dumping-duties","tag-exports","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-german-politics","tag-germany","tag-manufacturing","tag-news","tag-overcapacity","tag-russia","tag-trade","tag-ukraine","tag-war","tag-world","tag-xi-jinping"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116134607894310212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}