BERLIN: Germany’s trade surplus with the United States widened again in 2017, official figures published on Wednesday by the Federal Statistical Office show.
According to the Wiesbaden-based government statisticians, in the trade with the U.S., Germany exported goods worth 111.5 billion euros (137.5 billion U.S. dollars) while imported goods worth 61 billion euros, resulting in a surplus of 50.5 billion euros.
Last year, the Federal Statistical Office put the figure at 48.9 billion euros.
Germany has been criticized by the U.S. President Donald Trump for its large trade and current account surpluses.
The imbalance in trade between the countries has widened almost consistently from relatively modest surplus of 14.6 billion euros for Berlin in the year 2000 onwards to reach a record level of 53.5 billion euros in 2015.
Speaking to Xinhua on Wednesday, Thiess Petersen, senior economics expert at the Bertelsmann Foundation, warned that news of the latest trade surplus could prompt the Trump administration to “adopt protectionist measures against German or European firms.”
“This would endanger the prosperity and low unemployment rate of the exporting nation Germany,” Petersen added.
Amid a wider context of deteriorating transatlantic relations since the election of Trump, U.S. discomfort with German export competitiveness has further contributed to growing economic tensions between the U.S. and European Union (EU). Washington is currently openly mulling the introduction of punitive import tariffs on steel and aluminum, leading Brussels to threaten retaliation against Bourbon whisky and Harley-Davidson motorcycles among others.
