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Trade between the U.S. and Germany, which has Europe's biggest
economy, ticked up 0.1% compared with 252.8 billion euros
($264.3 billion) in 2023, Germany's Federal Statistical Office
said.
Trade with China, which was Germany's biggest trading partner
every year from 2016 to 2023, dropped 3.1% to 246.3 billion
euros. The Netherlands took third place with a total trade
volume of 205.7 billion euros, a 4.2% drop.
Germany hasn’t seen significant economic growth in five years.
The country for years expanded exports and dominated world trade
in engineered products like industrial machinery and luxury
cars.
But it's suffered from increasing competition from Chinese
companies, along with many other factors, and the economy
contracted in each of the last two years.
Fixing it will be one of the most urgent tasks of the government
that emerges from Sunday's German election, which also will have
to navigate the trade policy of the new U.S. administration.
Germany's trade surplus with the U.S. grew to 70 billion euros
last year from 63.3 billion in 2023, the statistics office said.
While the value of exports from Germany was up 2.2% to 161.4
billion euros, American imports declined by 3.4% to 91.4 billion
euros. The U.S. has been Germany's biggest single export
destination since 2015.
Germany saw its trade deficit with China widen, meanwhile.
Chinese imports were down 0.3% to 156.3 billion euros, while
German exports to China dropped 7.6% to 90 billion euros.
In total, German exports added up to 1.56 trillion euros last
year, a 1.2% decline compared with 2023. Imports from around the
world dropped 3% to 1.32 billion euros.
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