BONN, Germany -- German economics minister Guenther Rexrodt left Bonn Sunday for three days of talks with top Clinton adminstration officials in Washington.
With a backdrop of growing trade disagreements between the United States and the European Community, Rexrodt will meet with U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor and other members of President Clinton's Cabinet.
'The U.S. and the European Community must come to an understanding and deal with the conflict in a constructive manner,' Rexrodt said before his departure, adding. 'Only by doing so can we take responsibility for world economic developments.'
Rexrodt, 51, a member of Germany's liberal Free Democratic Party, joined Chancellor Helmut Kohl's center-right coalition government as economics minister last January after the resignation of his predecessor, Juergen Moellemann.
Until his appointment as economics minister, Rexrodt worked as a senior executive in Berlin at the German government's Treuhand Agency, responsible for privatizing, restructuring or liquidating former East German state concerns.
