Soon before Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s trip to China, Rhineland‑Palatinate premier Alexander Schweitzer (SPD) warned against tightening the country’s economic isolation from the People’s Republic. “China is an important trading partner” Schweitzer told “Handelsblatt”. “Without China Germany cannot get its products into global markets”. He argued that German trade policy should open markets, not shut them off.
Instead of narrowly targeted measures aimed at China, Schweitzer advocated a “Buy‑European” strategy and defended the EU Commission’s controversial proposals. “Setting requirements or quotas within supply chains is the right approach” he said, noting that it is, in part, a protectionist response to the protectionism the EU itself faces.
Schweitzer described these measures as “self‑defence” adding that “we cannot cling to old global‑trade ideals while the world around us attacks us. We are in the middle of an economic survival struggle”.
