The Latest: German officials say US wrong on climate, trade

TAORMINA, Italy (AP) – The Latest on President Donald Trump’s first trip abroad (all times local):

2:13 p.m.

Germany is rejecting a U.S. official’s assertion that efforts to combat climate change will harm economic growth.

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters on the flight to Sicily Thursday that, if it comes to a choice between measures to curtail global warming under the 2015 Paris climate accord and growing the U.S. economy, economic considerations would prevail. He said, “If those things collide, growing our economy is going to win. ”

Asked about the comments Friday, a spokesman for Germany’s environment ministry said “we expressly don’t share the view that protecting the climate harms economic growth.”

Nikolai Fichtner said Germany sees protecting the climate as “a modernization program” for national economies.” He said, “the key question is whether one is part of this early on or not.”

He also said Germany is lobbying “at all levels right now” for the U.S. to remain part of the Paris agreement.

___

1:50 p.m.

A German government spokesman says trade surpluses like the one that’s provoking Donald Trump’s ire are the result of market factors and are “neither good nor bad.”

Spokesman Georg Streiter didn’t comment directly on a report that Trump called Germany “bad, very bad” on trade because of German companies’ success selling goods such as cars in the U.S. Streiter said in Berlin that Germany’s current account surplus – the broadest measure of trade and investment flows – reflects economic factors that the German government can’t directly do anything about.

He said it was “also caused by factors that cannot, or at least cannot directly, be influenced by economic or financial policy measures in Germany,” including the price of oil price, the euro exchange rate and “structural factors such as demographic developments.”

___

1:44 p.m.

President Donald Trump is praising the Republican who won Montana’s special House race Thursday for his “Great win in Montana.”

Republican Greg Gianforte won his race despite having been charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly slamming a reporter to the ground.

Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs said Gianforte “body slammed” him and broke his glasses at a Wednesday event. Trump offered his comments during the G-7 summit it Sicily Friday.

Gianforte will fill the seat once held by Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

___

12:52 p.m.

Comments by President Trump on Germany’s trade surplus with the United States are getting attention as leaders of seven wealthy democracies gather for difficult talks on trade and climate change.

Germany’s Der Spiegel reported that Trump told European Union leaders in Brussels Thursday that Germans are “bad, very bad” on trade ahead of the Group of Seven summit in Taormina, Sicily.

Trump was also quoted saying he wanted to reduce Germans car sales in the U.S. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said Friday that Trump did say Germans are “very bad on trade but he doesn’t have a problem with Germany.”

He noted that Trump’s father was born in Germany and said Trump had told the leaders, “I don’t have a problem Germany, I have a problem with German trade.”

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the report was “exaggerated” and that Trump was “not aggressive” in his comments.

___

12:15 p.m.

President Donald Trump says on Twitter that he’s getting “ready to engage” his fellow G-7 leaders “on many issues including economic growth, terrorism, and security.”

Trump offered two messages shortly after arriving at the G-7 summit of wealthy nations being held in the coastal city of Taormina, Sicily.

He’s also touting his trip so far, describing it as “very successful.” He says, “We made and saved the USA many billions of dollars and millions of jobs.”

Trump is on the final stop of his first foreign trip, which has taken him to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Brussels and Italy.

___

(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)