Thread by @WilliamYang120

Germany wants the EU and U.S. to strengthen transatlantic ties via a trade deal, a WTO reform to increase pressure on China and a joint carbon-emission trading system to protect the climate. reuters.com/article/us-ger…

Peter Beyer, the transatlantic coordinator for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, told Reuters that Germany and the new U.S. administration under President Joe Biden should “think big” and aim for an ambitious agenda based on shared values and focused on joint interests.

“After the difficult years under Donald Trump, Germany and Europe now have a historic chance to breathe new life into the transatlantic partnership and improve relations with the U.S.,” Beyer said.

Beyer said that while both sides would continue to have differences on issues like Russian gas imports, this should not stop Germany and the United States from liaising closely on economic, trade, tax and climate policies.

“Now is the right time to put a package of trade and economic policy proposals on the agenda. This must include a comprehensive and ambitious free trade deal,” said Beyer, a member of Merkel’s conservative party.

“It should include a common roadmap for a WTO (World Trade Organization) reform that, among other things, finally gets China to play by international trade rules - violations of these rules must be sanctioned.”

As a first step towards rebuilding trust, Beyer said, the new U.S. administration should withdraw punitive tariffs unilaterally imposed by Trump on European imports of aluminium and steel.

Talks about an EU-U.S. trade deal should start without preconditions from either side. “And we should also abandon the maxim that there can only be an agreement once we have agreed on all areas. Instead, we should go step by step,” Beyer said.

“The first step could be an agreement which would see the EU and U.S. abolish all tariffs on industrial goods. Progress could be made quickly here. Controversial areas such as agriculture must then be discussed in a second step.”

Germany views climate protection as another policy area with great potential to work more closely together with the U.S. as both sides were now pulling in the same direction again, he said.

“Biden’s decision to reinstate the U.S. to the Paris climate agreement (which Trump abandoned) sends an important signal.”

As a medium-term goal, Europe and the US should strive for a transatlantic emissions trading system, which could be joined by other large industrialized countries. “That may sound utopian from today’s perspective, but if we don’t think big, we won’t get far,” Beyer said.

“We have to install a common system in which it pays off to work for climate protection and invest in green technology, both on government and business level. A transatlantic emissions trading system can be an important building bloc for this.”