Bernhard Mattes, President AmCham Germany, Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Minister of Economy for NRW, Dr. Alexander Schröder-Frerkes, Chair of AmCham.
Monday, 15 January 2018, Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany – A traditional New Year’s reception was hosted by the American Chambers of Commerce (AmCham) in the capital of Germany’s most populous federal state North Rhine-Westphalia.
All guests were welcomed to the function by the regional chairman of AmCham in NRW, Dr. Alexander Schröder. Special guest and keynote speaker was NRW Economy Minister, Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, who spoke about the ongoing opportunities and obstacles in German-American relations.
President of AmCham, Mr Bernhard Mattes in his turn highlighted the importance of digitalisation that has been a topic all throughout 2017. On the other hand, a hot potato issue has been the Trump administration’s stance on trade.
AmCham was in 2017 twice in Washington D.C. partaking in bilateral discussions and promoting free trade as well as the abrogation of barriers, and little protectionism. Albeit President Donald Trump polarises public opinion, US-American-German trade liaisons are still rather solid. Yet there is a climate on uncertainty due to the administration’s mercurial governmental programme.
Particularly there is still uncertainty about the realisation of TTIP. Trump’s administration has not pursued it further, however, it has not been discarded either. American and German business élites are eager for a new German government to take office so that they can put forward the matter anew vis-à-vis the USA.
For further information:
AmCham: https://www.amcham.de
Minister of Economy of NRW (Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart): https://www.wirtschaft.nrw/minister
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Photo credit: AmCham Germany/Jürgen Markus.
