German finance minister warns against quick decoupling from China

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Christian Lindner, Germany's finance minister, said quickly decoupling from China would affect German jobs.

“Decoupling our economy from the Chinese market would not be in the interest of jobs in Germany,” according to Mr Christian Lindner.

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

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BERLIN - Germany must

reduce its dependence on China gradually

as decoupling from the Chinese market would cost jobs in Europe’s biggest economy, Finance Minister Christian Lindner was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Germany is working on a new China strategy that takes a more sober view of relations and aims to reduce dependence on Asia’s economic superpower, which has been the country’s top trading partner since 2016.

“Decoupling our economy from the Chinese market would not be in the interest of jobs in Germany,” Mr Lindner was quoted as saying by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

He said that gradually other world regions and markets would have to become more important for German business over the coming years and decades, Welt reported.

“The political conditions must be improved for this,” Mr Lindner said. REUTERS

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