Trade

Trade represents almost 87% of Germany’s GDP (World Bank, 2018), and the country is both the world’s third largest importer and exporter. The country is by far the world’s largest exporter of automobiles (around 20% of total exported cars), but it also exports machinery, parts of motor vehicles, planes and medicaments. Imports include motor vehicles and their parts, petroleum oils, petroleum gases, and automatic data-processing machines.

Germany’s primary trade partner is the European Union: around 58.2% of German exports and 56% of its imports are traded within the EU (WTO, 2018). At a national level, the US (8.6%), China (7.1%) and Switzerland (4.2%) were the main buyers of German products; while China (9.8%), the US (6.1%) and Switzerland (4.3%) were the leading countries of origin of German imports.