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Zurich - Germany hit back at critics on its trade surplus, with Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle saying in remarks published Sunday that Berlin would not apologise for its successful export-led model.
"We will not apologise for being successful. We see this much more as incentives for others to step into a healthy competition with us," he told Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag.
"One should not criticise those who bring good benefits," he added.
"The question is more, what can be done to make Europe more competitive. Europe runs well with a strong, successful Germany," he said.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said last week that Germany's strong surplus, a result of Germany exporting more goods than it imports, was unsustainable for Germany's partners in the eurozone.
"(Could) those with surpluses do a little something? It takes two to tango," Lagarde told the Financial Times.
"Clearly Germany has done an awfully good job in the last 10 years or so, improving competitiveness, putting very high pressure on its labour costs," she said.
"I'm not sure it is a sustainable model for the long term and for the whole of the group. Clearly we need better convergence."
The European Union's Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, also said in Madrid that it was important to pay attention to trade imbalances "and also to countries that have surpluses".
Germany, Europe's biggest economy and the world's number two exporter after China, has also come under attack from the United States in the past over its trade surplus.
Meanwhile, Westerwelle dismissed comments that the European common currency had become weak and unstable due to the debt crisis in Greece.
"One forgets what it was like before the euro. Has everyone forgotten the currency fluctuations and how they afflicted not just export oriented countries?"
"The euro is strong, the euro will stay strong. I have no doubt about this successful model," he said.
The euro in the past week slumped to 10-month lows against the dollar amid the Greek debt crisis, and only began climbing on Friday after the European Union agreed on unprecedented plans to rescue Greece from the crisis.
- AFP
