BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany wants a extra open dialogue on the way it can cut back its over-reliance on China in lots of areas because the COVID-19 pandemic has elevated its financial dependency on Asia’s resurgent big, appearing Well being Minister Jens Spahn stated on Wednesday.

“We now have skilled and needed to expertise how dependent we’ve got change into on China,” Spahn stated at an financial convention organised by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung every day.

“This alone could be value discussing on an financial summit by itself, the query of how we will at the least change into a bit much less depending on China once more within the 2020s,” Spahn added.

Spahn, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, stated that Germany was too dependent for instance on imports from China in areas resembling face masks and medical precursors. It must also do extra to diversify its export markets.

“Is that this an excellent factor to have such a excessive diploma of dependency? I feel the reply is not any. You possibly can’t clear up this in a couple of years, it is a problem for a decade,” Spahn stated.

Germany and the European Union ought to cut back their over-reliance on China by sealing and finalising extra commerce offers with different international locations and areas resembling Canada, he stated.

The three events working to kind Germany’s subsequent ruling coalition are at odds over China.

Greens co-leader Annalena Baerbock has urged imposing harder obstacles for Chinese language imports to stop worth dumping, and pushing again in opposition to poor environmental requirements and human proper violations.

Chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz from the centre-left Social Democrats prevented making clear statements on China in the course of the election marketing campaign.

Scholz aides have hinted, nevertheless, that the previous mayor of the port metropolis of Hamburg, which has even nearer enterprise ties to China, is more likely to proceed Merkel’s extra mercantile method which places enterprise pursuits forward of ethical issues.