The mutual opening of markets offers new market opportunities for our companies. Every fourth job in Germany depends on the export sector. Fair access to markets, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, and instruments protecting against dumping measures must be included in future trade agreements. This is the opinion of Bernd Westphal, spokesman for the working group on the economy and energy of the SPD parliamentary group.

Globalization requires value-driven dynamics. Dieter Janecek, MP, spokesman for the parliamentary group of Alliance 90/The Green Party, explains that the EU can become the pioneer of a fair trade policy that in an intelligent way combines economic advantage with the global issues of fairness and the environment.

The Free Democratic Party (FDP) is fully committed to free trade. The goal is to conclude global agreements within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In the medium term, bilateral agreements are the way forward. Tendencies towards isolation must be unequivocally rejected and public approval of free trade must be increased. This is the view of Michael Theurer, MEP and leading candidate of the FDP in Baden-Württemberg for the 2017 election to the Bundestag.

In the run-up to the Bundestag election, all political parties that will be represented in the 19th Bundestag according to the latest opinion polls are busy discussing the issues of foreign trade and globalization. But the priorities that have been set and the weight given to these issues in the various party platforms differ considerably.

The new Federal Government should make the support and reform of the global economic order a priority. Possible avenues for achieving this goal include the revival of the TTIP negotiations, the strengthening of the Eurozone, and an investment in global relations with like-minded countries. This is the opinion of Peter S. Rashish, Senior Fellow at John Hopkins University.