Move over China, America is coming through. That was the message Wednesday when new figures showed Germany’s biggest single trading partner is now the U.S. for the first time since 2015, displacing China from the top spot as exports to the Asian power declined.
AP reports trade between the U.S. and Germany, which has Europe’s biggest economy, ticked up 0.1 percent compared with $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 percent to 246.3 billion euros.
The Netherlands took third place with a total trade volume of 205.7 billion euros, a 4.2 percent drop.
The AP report notes 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.
In total, German exports added up to 1.56 trillion euros last year, a 1.2 percent decline compared with 2023. Imports from around the world dropped three percent to 1.32 billion euros.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, was last year the only G7 country to post a contraction for two consecutive years.
