The chancellor is going to China on Saturday for a delicate visit at a time when the West is stiffening in the face of trade practices deemed unfair by Beijing.
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President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz pleaded, Friday April 12, for a “rebalancing” trade between Europe and China, on the eve of a visit by the German leader to Beijing.
This trip takes place at a time when the West is stiffening in the face of trade practices deemed unfair by Beijing. His three-day trip also comes as China comes under fire for its proximity to Moscow. The discussions promise to be tense, with the EU having engaged in a standoff with Beijing, which it accuses of distorting the European market by flooding it with low-cost products.
“Unwavering support for Ukraine”
Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz also reaffirmed their “unwavering and long-term support for Ukraine” And “discussed European initiatives of military support for Ukraine”. The French president has been due to go to Ukraine for several weeks, but he has always said that he would only make the trip if he had concrete announcements to make there.
The two leaders also underlined the “need to revive European competitiveness, in particular through the deepening of the Capital Markets Union”. The general idea is to launch a sort of “European supermarket” financing, where banks and the world of finance would better support growth. But this project, which requires a form of pooling of financial rules specific to each country, is struggling to see the light of day. Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz will meet for a Franco-German council of ministers on May 28 in Meseberg, near Berlin.
