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U.S.
customers bought goods from Europe's biggest economy worth 29.1
billion euros ($32.5 billion), keeping the U.S. as the biggest
client for 'Made in Germany' products, Federal Statistics Office
figures reviewed by Reuters showed.
Since German clients imported much less U.S. goods from
January-March, Germany's trade surplus with the United States
swelled to nearly 14 billion euros in the first quarter. This is
the biggest bilateral surplus with a single country for Germany.
Germany's export strength, the U.S. trade deficit and measures
to protect producers with import tariffs will rank high on the
agenda during talks between Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries
and U.S. counterparts such as Wilbur Ross and Robert Lighthizer
in Washington this week.
Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the G20 group of
the world's biggest developed and developing countries,
advocates an order of free and open trade based on the jointly
agreed rules by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Trump's protectionist rhetoric and the dispute about the
benefits of free trade are likely to also dominate the agenda of
the G20 summit to be held in Hamburg in July - even though
initial concerns among German politicians and business managers
in Europe's economic powerhouse have eased.
(Reporting by Michael Nienaber, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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