Foreign trade
Exports despite trading hurdles with growth
The half -year balance for German foreign trade is positive. But US President Trump’s aggressive customs policy leaves traces. The view is cloudy.
Germany’s exporters have completed the first half of the year with the USA with a slight plus. If “Made in Germany” with a total value of 785.6 billion euros were marketed abroad in the six months. Despite increasing trade barriers, these were 0.6 percent more than from January to June 2024, as can be seen from the latest figures in the Federal Statistical Office.
There were noticeable declines for German manufacturers in the first half of the year in business in the particularly important markets USA (minus 3.1 percent) and China (minus 13.5 percent). US President Donald Trump tries to strengthen the domestic economy with the help of higher tariffs. This increases imports to the United States – a burden for the export -oriented German economy.
Commerzbank chief economist Jörg Krämer expects a probably long-term weakness of the US business: “The higher tariffs should drop the price-adjusted exports to the United States by an estimated 20 to 25 percent over the next two years.”
USA most important market for “Made in Germany”
Most German exports went to the United States in June. However, compared to May of the current year, the value of the goods fell by 2.1 percent to 11.8 billion euros. That was the third decline in a row and the lowest value since February 2022 with 11.2 billion euros at that time. Compared to June 2024, German exports to the USA even decreased by 8.4 percent.
Overall, German production worth 130.5 billion euros were delivered abroad in June – an increase of 0.8 percent for the previous month and 2.4 percent more than a year earlier. The imports to Germany increased even more clearly to 115.6 billion euros.
dpa
Source: Stern
