BREAKING NEWS

Germany says US under Trump must abide by trade deals

The United States must stick to international agreements under the presidency of Donald Trump, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday, adding that he did not expect a major trade war despite Trump's attack on German car makers.
Trump, taking office on Friday, has vowed to make sweeping changes to US trade policy, and economists see his protectionism as the biggest risk to US growth.
"The United States also signed international agreements," Schaeuble told magazine Der Spiegel. "I don't think a big trade war will break out tomorrow, but we will naturally insist that agreements are upheld."
Schaeuble separately told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that even a superpower like the United States could not destroy global free trade structures.
"I am quite optimistic that even the US and the rest of the world as a whole will not (abandon) the defense of free trade," he said.