MERKEL JOINS THE CHORUS OF CONCERN AT WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ABOUT RISE OF PROTECTIONISM

▶ German chancellor warns against ‘shutting ourselves off, isolating ourselves’ and states her determination to form a government after weeks of paralysis

Protectionism will not lead to a good future, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the World Economic Forum yesterday.

Mrs Merkel said that Germany would work with other countries to solve the world’s issues and that countries that isolated themselves were not being constructive.

“We think that shutting ourselves off, isolating ourselves, will not lead us into a good future. Protectionism is not the proper answer,” she said, in what could be seen as a veiled criticism of US President Donald Trump, who has pursued an America-first policy.

In a wide-ranging address in Davos, Mrs Merkel spoke of her determination to form a German government, support for a multilateral global infrastructure, the need to evolve with the digital age and ensuring that prosperity across the world grows.

Referring to the WEF’s focus of “creating a shared future in a fractured world”, she talked extensively about bridging the divisions that are growing internationally.

“We believe that if we are of that opinion that things are simply ‘not fair’, then we have to seek multilateral answers to this and not pursue a unilateral protectionist course where we isolate ourselves against others,” Mrs Merkel said.

Achieving prosperity will be more achievable if countries co-operated with one another, she said, continuing to warn that there is was “grave danger” that inward-looking countries would be “left behind”.

Reflecting on the UK’s decision to leave the EU, Mrs Merkel said it was regrettable. An avid proponent of the EU, she said: “It is interesting although it is obviously regrettable that citizens of the UK have opted to leave the EU, but at the same time this has encouraged us to concentrate on the big issues.”

Mrs Merkel said that she wanted to work to help achieve a good outcome for all in Britain’s exit.

In a clear show of support, Ms Merkel said the election of the staunchly pro-EU French president, Emmanuel Macron, had brought a “new impetus” to the table, which “will strengthen us”, and argued that with support for the EU no longer being unanimous among its members, it was a chance for the union to continue to develop and improve in a number of areas including strengthening the eurozone and deciphering the ownership of data spread across digital and geographical regions.

Mrs Merkel said a unified front from the EU on issues of foreign policy were also needed if the bloc were to give a consistent and unified response to other large world powers, such as China and the US.

Tackling ISIL and coping with the pressure of mass migration would benefit from a more active and unified response from countries across the world, she said.

Looking closer to home, she confirmed that she was looking to form a government as soon as possible. Talks around the formation of the coalition are being guided by the desire to ensure long-lasting prosperity for Germany and for progress to be made in the country’s adoption of rapidly evolving digital technologies. Germany is Europe’s biggest economy.

“We are not leading the way in other areas of the digital world, for example the society and the state,” Mrs Merkel said. “The next few years will be under the heading of let us bring digital into our education system, the state has to be digitised, people have to be able to communicate with their state representatives through digital and a better ecosystem for startups needs to be created so that we can make further progress, so that we can again be a cradle of innovation.”

Germany’s Social Democrats voted on Sunday to begin formal coalition talks with Mrs Merkel’s conservatives, moving Europe’s economic powerhouse a step closer to a stable government after months of political uncertainty and leading the way toward Mrs Merkel’s fourth term.

We have to seek multilateral answers to this and not pursue a unilateral protectionist course ANGELA MERKEL German Chancellor