German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned fellow members of the Group of 20 against protectionist and isolationist policies on Wednesday, just over two months before she hosts a G20 summit in Hamburg.
Protectionism and isolationism will “lead to a dead end, not the way forward,” Merkel said at a meeting of trade groups held in preparation for the July 7-8 summit in the northern German port city.
Merkel said that the global financial crisis that began in 2007 had shown that no country could act unilaterally and that “no country can prevent such a crisis from repeating itself on its own.”
The comments were an implicit rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” pledge to end trade agreements he perceives as harmful to U.S. workers and to pursue a less interventionist approach. (dpa/NAN)