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12-02-2025
BERLIN: Germany’s trade surplus with the United States reached a record level, data from the statistics office showed, as countries wait to learn how US President Donald Trump will impose tariffs on imported goods.
Germany’s trade surplus with the US expanded to 70 billion euros ($72 billion) in 2024, well above the previous record of 63.3 billion euros reported for the full year 2023.
“It would be hard to imagine worse timing,” said Holger Goerg, from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW).
Trump substantially raised tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on Monday to a flat 25% “without exceptions or exemptions”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in response the European Union was still awaiting formal notice of any new tariffs but that any such move would be met with retaliatory measures.
The increase in trade surpluses could reverse, Goerg said, if Trump imposed new tariffs on German imports, a measure the US president says would boost US manufacturing.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, was last year the only G7 country posting a contraction for two consecutive years and a trade conflict with the US, its main trading partner, would deliver a big hit to output.
German exports to the US, led by cars and pharmaceutical goods, increased by 2.2% year-on-year to a record 161.3 billion euros in 2024, consolidating the US position as the top buyer of goods “Made in Germany”.
Imports from the US fell by 3.4% to 91.4 billion euros last year.
Goerg said the US trade deficit reflected a lack of international competitiveness of US goods which will not be solved by tariffs.
“On the contrary, I would assume that this would have a negative impact on the US export performance,” Goerg said.
The situation is completely different in trade in services, where the US has a strong export surplus, including to the EU and Germany, he noted. “Trump should include that in his calculations,” Goerg said.
Germany accounts for a hefty chunk of the European Union’s large trade surplus with the United States, which has been a source of anger for Trump.
The US president has threatened to hit the EU with tariffs soon, saying the bloc has treated Washington “very badly”.
Since taking office, Trump has unveiled fresh duties on Canada, Mexico and China, before reaching deals with the Canada and Mexico to halt the levies for a month.
Klaus-Juergen Gern, from the IfW Kiel economic institute, said that if Washington levied new tariffs on the EU, this could deal a heavy blow to the ailing German economy, which is already faced with a manufacturing slowdown and structural problems.
“It would be particularly problematic if tariffs were to be imposed only on some products from Europe… that play a particularly important role for German exports, such as cars, pharmaceuticals and medical technology,” he told media.
Total trade between the United States and Germany last year amounted to about 255 billion euros, above the 247 billion euros in trade between China and Germany, according to the data, which was collated media.
Germany’s total exports worldwide amounted to nearly 1.6 billion euros in 2024, down one percent year-on-year, highlighting the challenges for the economy.
Imports also dropped by 2.8 percent. There was a positive trade balance for the year of 241.2 billion euros. (Int’l News Desk)
