By Maria Martinez
BEIJING (Reuters) -There must be fair conditions for competition in trade with China, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said on Monday, adding that dialogue matters.
“Germany and China together can find answers to the challenges of our time,” Klingbeil said in his opening remarks of the China-Germany Financial Dialogue in Beijing.
The finance minister is the first representative of Germany’s new coalition government to visit China on Monday, with Berlin under pressure to show it has a handle on China policy as a record trade gap widens and supply chains wobble.
German companies have contributed to China’s growth and modernization by investing heavily in expertise and engineering technology, while conversely, Chinese suppliers have become key to the German industrial value chain, the minister said.
“The close trade relations between China and Germany over the past few decades also mean that we have a common responsibility,” Klingbeil said, mentioning a global trade context in which a rules-based order is called into question.
(Reporting by Maria MartinezEditing by Ludwig Burger)