US displaced China as Germany’s biggest single trading partner last year

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BERLIN (AP) — The United States was Germany’s biggest single trading partner last year for the first time since 2015, displacing China from the top spot as exports to the Asian power declined, official figures showed Wednesday.

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.