Speaking to the Financial Times, Peter Navarro whom President Trump picked to head the new National Trade Council said that the euro is grossly undervalued and it is more like an implicit Deutsche Mark giving Germany unfair trade advantage over its partners. Speaking with regard to the Tran-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, Mr. Navarro said, “A big obstacle to viewing TTIP as a bilateral deal is Germany, which continues to exploit other countries in the EU as well as the US with an implicit Deutsche Mark that is grossly undervalued…….The German structural imbalance in trade with the rest of the EU and the US underscores the economic heterogeneity within the EU….ergo, this is a multilateral deal in bilateral dress.”

After the inauguration, Donald Trump moved swiftly to write an executive order announcing the withdrawal of the United States from the TPP agreement. He also praised Brexit, predicted that Britain won’t be the last to leave the EU, slammed the EU by calling it a vehicle for Germany, and said that German chancellor Angela Merkel would be a difficult ally. Before the election, he also blamed chancellor Merkel for the European refugee crisis.

The euro rose sharply after Mr. Navarro called it as grossly undervalued. The single currency is currently trading at 1.076 against the dollar.