China remains the most important trading partner – Great Britain falls behind

China remains Germany’s most important trading partner. Last year, goods worth 245.4 billion euros were traded between the two countries, the Federal Statistical Office announced on Friday. Sales in foreign trade with the People’s Republic, which is Germany’s most important trading partner for the sixth time in a row, increased by 15 percent compared to 2020. By contrast, trade with Great Britain shrank after Brexit.

The Netherlands followed in second and third place in the list of trading partners with sales of a good 206 billion euros and the USA with more than 194 billion euros. Trade with the two countries recovered strongly after the almost ten percent slump in the Corona crisis year 2020.

The importance of China for German imports is growing steadily: in 1980, China was ranked 35th among the most important importing countries, and in 1990 it was ranked 14th. The People’s Republic has been at the top since 2015. In 2021, goods worth almost 142 billion euros were imported from China, a good fifth more than in the previous year. The Netherlands and the USA continued to rank 2nd and 3rd as the most important import countries. “The value of goods imported from China was almost twice the value of imports from the United States,” the statisticians said.

Most German exports went to the USA with 122.1 billion euros (plus 18 percent). China and France followed. Germany’s most important exports were cars and car parts, machinery and chemical products.

Trade with Great Britain continued to shrink after Brexit: With foreign trade turnover of 97.4 billion euros (minus 4.6 percent), the kingdom fell back to 10th place in the list of Germany’s most important trading partners – the lowest position since foreign trade statistics began in 1950. (dpa)

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