During his final day of a whirlwind Asia tour this week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business in Seoul on Friday that Germany and Europe are ready to cooperate with Asian economies to foster a rules-based economic order.
Merz said the European Union is ready to take the lead in shaping a better deal for countries in Asia feeling the pressure of a destabilized rules-based trade order.
“Competition between the US and China is ramping up. Tariffs, technological decoupling strategies and a tough race for critical raw materials and new technologies are fundamentally changing the rules of our global economy,” Merz said.
“These conflicts and systemic shifts in power patterns concern us all. They particularly concern economically aspiring partners in the Indo-Pacific, as well as in Germany and in Europe.”
During stops in Singapore and Japan this week, Merz pushed for free trade partnerships and greater European cooperation with Asian economies.
In Singapore on Wednesday, Merz called for a free trade agreement between the EU and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a sweeping multilateral free trade agreement connecting the Asia Pacific and the Americas.
The UK is the single European signatory, albeit outside of the EU bloc. The US pulled out during the first administration President Donald Trump in 2017, scuttling the original version, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
“We want to offer opportunities beyond bilateral agreements,”he said in Seoul on Friday.
“We are resolutely joining forces against unilateralism, autocratic power politics and violations of international law,” Merz added.
“When supply chains become political pawns, when access to key technologies is obstructed or when efforts to secure raw materials resemble displays of power rather than fair partnerships, this jeopardizes growth, prosperity and ultimately the security of entire regions.”
Merz also tried to allay concerns about EU protectionism under the “Made in Europe” scheme intended to protect carmakers.
“There is a fear that we might be facing a new wave of European protectionism – that we are closing ourselves off from other nations,” Merz said.
“I take these concerns very seriously. I will carry them back not just to Berlin, but also to Brussels, and I will certainly raise the fact that these concerns were expressed to me quite forcefully here,” he added.
Citing Germany as an example, South Korean Prime Minister Han Seong Sook told the conference “German companies are using Korea as a central hub to expand their presence in the Asia-Pacific region.”
Additional reporting by Nina Haase
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