Brussels, 26/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European currency again soared above its recent record high levels against the US dollar on Friday 23 November, coming close to the symbolic threshold of $1.50 a euro. Speaking on the fringes of the ASEAN summit in Singapore on Thursday 22 November, President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, recognised that the extremely high euro was becoming a cause of concern for some EU export industries in some domains. This concern now seems to be shared by Germany, given the disappointing German foreign trade figures for the third quarter of 2007 which are put down to the high euro exchange rate. The same day, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, expressed her concerns, saying that the euro was naturally a problem for Germany. EU aviation company Airbus is concerned about the problems to which the low level of the dollar might give rise because aircraft deals are done in dollars. The French company Areva has got round this by managing to have its contract for the supply of a couple of third generation nuclear power stations to China being paid in euros. Before travelling to China with Messrs Juncker and Almunia, Jean-Claude Trichet (President of the European Central Bank) pointed out the dangers of excess exchange rate volatility, saying in Paris on Friday that he had a shared position with the other members of the G7 group of industrialised countries about exchange rates in Asia, particularly the Chinese currency which as far as he was concerned, should speed up its upward valuation. (A.B.)