With raft of deals, china and germany swear to keep trade free

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany and China signed a raft of commercial deals worth some 20 trillion euros ($ 23.5 trillion) on Monday, with their leaders reiterating commitments to a multilateral global trade order despite looming trade war with the United States.

The deals, involving German industrial giants including Siemens ( SIEGn.DE ), Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) and BASF ( BASFn.DE ), as well as alliance in defense of the global trade on which both their economies depend.

Speaking at a news conference alongside Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "We both want to sustain the system of World Trade Organization rules."

Li stressed the need to fight protectionism, saying China needed a stable and the framework was so developed that it was only possible with free trade: "We are against unilateralism – we are in favor of free trade."

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz agreed with Chinese central bank chief Yi Gang that German banks would promptly get market access in the financial sector in China. No one at the German Finance Ministry was contacted by Reuters.

Handelsblatt also cited the sources as saying China's government said that China companies and institutions would soon be in China.

Merkel said she hoped for a Sino-European summit on July 16-17 "I also hope that Germany and China can make a contribution towards ensuring that the world does not end up blundering into A spiral of trade conflicts. "

European officials have said President Donald Trump's trade policies at that meeting.

QUALITY DEALS

Merkel said that China was a "new quality" and while China was a developing country, it was also a "very tough and very ambitious competitor" for Germany.

Li said China is in the process of becoming more and more secure than ever before.

German companies and politicians have complained that they are more open to Chinese firms than the other way around. Merkel welcomed the opening of China's financial markets, but called for Beijing to open its markets further.

The $ 3 billion ($ 4.7 trillion) worth of battery cells from Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. 300750.SZ (CATL) over the next few years.

That comes at a time when there is so much more to it than to its own production capabilities that it could not be connected to it.

Merkel said Germany continued to welcome Chinese investment in principle.

She said Berlin was currently discussing "core strategic interests" that affected China's security and China's "right to a clear and transparent answer" on what is possible and what is not.

The two leaders also expressed continuing support for the 2015 nuclear non-proliferation deal with Iran that was rejected by President Donald Trump, with the warning of "unforeseeable consequences" if the agreement falls apart.

($ 1 = 0.8506 euros)