German chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese president Xi Jinping, the heads of state of two of the world’s biggest trading economies, agreed to use international channels of negotiation to tackle steel overcapacity following the Trump administration’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs on imports of the metal.
The two leaders discussed the issue on a call on Saturday ahead of a Group of 20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Buenos Aires. “They . . . were in favour of continuing to work on solutions within the framework of the G20. They stressed the importance of close multilateral co-operation in trade in this context,” Steffen Seibert, a spokesperson for the German chancellor, said.
The comments come in the wake of the US unveiling the controversial tariffs on steel and aluminium this month. Participants in the G20, which represents countries producing around 85 per cent of all global economic output, have signalled that they will call on the US administration to maintain an already-weakened commitment to free trade.