国际英语资讯:EU will not surrender to U.S. in trade conflict: German FM_时事

国际英语资讯:EU will not surrender to U.S. in trade conflict: German FM

BERLIN, July 24 -- German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) has warned U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday to expect a firm response from the European Union (EU) to new protectionist measures.

Speaking during an appearance on the public broadcaster ARD, Maas said that he was still hopeful that the trade conflict could be resolved consensually. Nevertheless, Europe would not "allow itself to be threatened and would not simply surrender" if Trump chose to escalate the dispute further.

The German foreign minister argued that Washington would leave Brussels with no other choice than to retaliate against a raft of new U.S. tariffs. Otherwise, the credibility of the bloc and the wider system of rules-based free trade would suffer lasting damage.

Maas emphasized that it was crucial for Europe as a whole, but Germany and France in particular, to speak with one voice on trade in order to be heard on a global level. Member states which became divided on the issue would be at the mercy of greater non-European powers without having any effective say over their own future.

According to the German Social Democrat (SPD), no one could be seriously interested in the imposition of new and higher import tariffs as threatened again recently by the U.S. "At the end of the day, all sides will lose, including the American side", he said. He consequently hoped that Washington would ultimately renege and depart from the protectionist path which it had embarked upon.