(ANSA) - TRIESTE - German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has issued a warning to Us President-elect Donald Trump over the dangers of protectionist trade policies, The Wall Street Journal reported. "Whoever wants growth - and I trust this administration will be a growth-friendly one - must be in favor of open markets. Protectionism can afford short-term advantages but is almost always damaging in the long term", Schäuble told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. Schäuble spoke before the publication of a Trump interview with German daily Bild, in which he threatened to impose a tax of 35% on vehicles imported to the U.S. market.

Schäuble also said countries must do more to counter attempts to influence politics via fake news: "Some people are being misled by fake news from Russian-language, state-financed and directed television. One cannot describe this as anything but a propaganda war. We must counter these attempts to influence through defamation and lies and false news ", Schäuble said.

Russia is increasingly reaching a German-speaking audience, including with a German-language online version of pro-Kremlin news channel RT. (ANSA).