Angela Merkel joins hands with Shinzo Abe to defend free trade

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a concerted effort to defend free trade, expanding the list of economic powers joining together to counter the US shift toward protectionism.

After clashing with President Donald Trump on economic policy at their first White House meeting, Merkel called for swift conclusion of a trade accord between Japan and the European Union. That followed a renewed German-Chinese commitment to open markets on the eve of her trip to Washington and Merkel’s backing for a freetrade accord between the EU and Mercosur, the South American economic bloc.

“Internationally, we are seeing a tendency toward protectionism and navel-gazing,” Abe said alongside Merkel during a news conference at the CeBit tech show in Hanover, Germany, on Monday. “What we need is trade that’s both fair and free.”

The display of German-Japanese unity underscores a rift elsewhere among the world’s biggest economic powers after US insistence on “fair” trade triggered conflict at a weekend meeting of Group of 20 finance chiefs in Germany.

Merkel pushed back against Trump’s pledge to enact “America First” policies and drew contrast to Japan and Germany, the world’s third and fourth-biggest economies. “Of course we want fair markets, but we don’t want to put up barriers,” she said Sunday.