Germany hopes for resolution in tariff dispute with US
Finance Minister Kukies at IMF meetings: US damaging its own interests with tariff policy
Washington (d.de/dpa) – On the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank spring session in Washington, German Finance Minister Jörg Kukies called for a general reduction in tariffs. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk, Kukies said that the tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump should be reversed, adding that tariffs should ideally be lowered across the board. He argued that they were harmful to global trade. The minister said he continued to hope for a resolution in the ongoing tariff dispute between the United States and the European Union, noting that the US was damaging its own interests through its tariff policy.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are currently meeting with member countries for their spring session in Washington. Germany is represented by Finance Minister Jörg Kukies and Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel, among others. The IMF was founded together with the World Bank at the end of the Second World War. Its role is to act as a global institution overseeing monetary stability and preventing major currency disruptions that could lead to political instability. It also provides loans to heavily indebted countries and those experiencing payment difficulties.