Schaeuble Says Germany Isn't Trade Manipulator, Rebuffing U.S.

(Bloomberg) -- Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble rejected U.S. criticism that Germany's trade surplus is based on unfair advantages, saying it's the result of competitive products rather than rigging.

A week before he's due to host a meeting of Group of 20 finance chiefs including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Germany, Schaeuble said Tuesday he's happy to discuss the reasons for the surge in the current-account surplus of Europe's biggest economy.

“No one can claim that we generate these surpluses through any manipulations,” Schaeuble told foreign reporters in Berlin. “It's based on the competitiveness of the German economy” and interest rates set by “the independent European Central Bank,” he said.

Germany says the euro's value is beyond the government's control, while the U.S. claims a “grossly undervalued” currency gives Germany an unfair edge. Germany's trade surplus rose to a record last year and the U.S. trade deficit widened in January to the highest level since March 2012.

“I think it would be useful to have candid discussions with Germany about ways that we could get that deficit reduced outside the boundaries and restrictions that they claim that they're under,” Peter Navarro, head of U.S. President Donald Trump's National Trade Council, said Monday at an event in Washington. “But it's a serious issue. Germany is one of the most difficult trade deficits that we're going to have to deal with.”

‘Happy to Discuss'

Germany ran a global current account surplus -- the balance of goods, services and capital transfers -- of about $310 billion last year, according to estimates by the Center for Economic Studies, a research group in Munich. The U.S. is the biggest importer of German goods, buying some $125 billion worth in 2015. Germany is the No. 4 foreign market for U.S. companies, which exported $50 billion in products to the country in 2015.

The euro was little changed at $1.0584 at 12:17 p.m. in New York, less than 2 percent above a 14-year low of $1.0388 reached in December.

“Of course we're happy to discuss this openly with anyone who wishes to discuss this and we'll then also ask: what exactly do you mean?” Schaeuble said. Weakening the German economy would undermine the stability of Europe, he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to emphasize the mutual benefits of free U.S.-German trade when she meets Trump in Washington next Tuesday, before the G-20 talks in Baden-Baden, Germany.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rainer Buergin in Berlin at rbuergin1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka, Kevin Costelloe