Germany, the new economic enemy of the United States?

Audio 04:04

By: Dominique Baillard Follow

NATO defense ministers are meeting today by videoconference to discuss the withdrawal of part of the American troops from German soil. Donald Trump's much-contested decision, including on his own side, comes amid growing trade tensions between Washington and Berlin.

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It is also for a question of big money that Washington got angry. Germany, it is true, is far from contributing 2% of its GDP to the NATO budget as provided for in the treaties. This is why Donald Trump wants to punish this bad payer today by touching him on the wallet: because the departure of the soldiers will penalize the merchants of the German cities where they are installed, stressed the American president. This litigation, almost as old as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is just one facet of Donald Trump's growing conflict between Germany and the United States. Seen from the White House where economic nationalists are the president's best advisers, Germany has robbed China of the role of the United States' number one new public enemy. It is she who is now paying the price for the trade war declared by Donald Trump. A little for the same reasons: the imbalance of trade. The deficit of the United States with the first exporting power of the European Union amounts to 67 billion dollars for 2019 - 59 billion euros. A record year for German exports to America. Berlin imported a little more than usual from the United States, so the imbalance has narrowed a little between the two countries, but not enough to quell Donald Trump's wrath.

Donald Trump who remarked on Monday that Germany treated his country very badly in commercial terms

A remark thrown during the press conference where he confirmed the partial withdrawal of American soldiers. As if the two files were linked. In fact Washington has been scrapping for two years with Europe because of the trade deficit mainly fueled by Germany. Berlin would abuse the favorable conditions granted to it in the aftermath of the Second World War to facilitate the reconstruction of its economy. The other German sin: taking advantage of the so-called weakness of the euro to export ever more across the Atlantic. In fact, if the Germans are always selling more cars to the Americans, this now represents a quarter of their exports, it is mainly thanks to the customs tariffs imposed on their foreign competitors.

The other dispute between Washington and Berlin concerns Russian gas

The construction of Nord Stream 2, a second gas pipeline in the North Sea connecting Russia to Germany, irritates the United States to the greatest extent. Officially for strategic reasons: Washington believes that Berlin dangerously worsens its dependence on the former Soviet great power. More prosaically the Americans would especially like to find a new outlet for their own gas, which is struggling to establish itself on the European market because of its high price, it remains much more expensive than that of the historical supplier of the European Union. Congress threatens to adopt new sanctions against companies working on the pipeline site. Once again the United States is wielding the stick to defend its economic interests.

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