Merkel criticises Trump's plans to ditch trans-Pacific trade deal
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, in Berlin on November 23, 2016. PHOTO | TOBIAS SCHWARZ | AFP
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With a planned US-EU mega-deal called TTIP also looking doomed, Ms Merkel predicted that in future “there will be more trade agreements, and they won’t have the standard which this agreement and the mooted TTIP deal have”.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has tapped South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to be his ambassador to the United Nations, US media reported today.
BERLIN, Wednesday
German Chancellor Angela Merkel today criticised plans by US President-elect Donald Trump to ditch a trans-Pacific trade deal, warning that future agreements will likely be worse.
With a planned US-EU mega-deal called TTIP also looking doomed, Ms Merkel predicted that in future “there will be more trade agreements, and they won’t have the standard which this agreement and the mooted TTIP deal have”.
“I tell you quite honestly, I am not happy that the trans-Pacific agreement will now probably not become a reality,” said Ms Merkel.
“I don’t know who will benefit from that, and today I want to refrain from making any predictions.”
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has tapped South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to be his ambassador to the United Nations, US media reported today.
The Republican rising star has accepted the offer, The Washington Post cited a source familiar with Trump’s transition process as saying.
The daughter of Indian immigrants, Mrs Haley, 44, is the first woman Trump has nominated to his cabinet. She has little foreign policy experience but injects diversity into Mr Trump’s team after a divisive election in which the real estate billionaire was outspoken in his criticism of immigration and faced accusations of sexual harassment from a series of women.
