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By Maria Martinez and Rene Wagner
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's trade surplus with the United States reached a record level last year, data from the statistics office showed, as countries wait to learn how U.S. President Donald Trump will impose tariffs on imported goods.
Germany's trade surplus with the U.S. 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 25% "without exceptions or exemptions". The White House on Tuesday declined to comment on the German trade surplus.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said 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 U.S. president says would boost U.S. manufacturing.
Damon V. Pike, a trade specialist and principal with the U.S. division of global accounting firm BDO International, said Trump had long been frustrated by Germany's longstanding reliance on exports and failure to pump up domestic demand.
“He’s talked about that, how he’s sick of these persistent trade deficits with the European Union,” he said, noting that Trump had already flagged plans to put tariffs on EU imports as early as next week.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, was last year the only G7 country to post a contraction for two consecutive years. A trade conflict with the U.S., its main trading partner, would deliver a big hit to output.
German exports to the U.S., led by cars and pharmaceutical goods, increased by 2.2% year-on-year to a record 161.3 billion euros in 2024, consolidating the U.S. position as the top buyer of goods "Made in Germany".
Imports from the U.S. fell by 3.4% to 91.4 billion euros last year.
Goerg said the U.S. trade deficit reflected a lack of international competitiveness of U.S. goods, which will not be solved by tariffs.
"On the contrary, I would assume that this would have a negative impact on the U.S. export performance," Goerg said.
The situation is completely different in trade in services, where the U.S. has a strong export surplus, including to the EU and Germany, he noted. "Mr. Trump should include that in his calculations," Goerg said.
($1 = 0.9693 euros)
(Reporting by Rene Wagner and Maria Martinez, additional reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Rachel More, Alexandra Hudson and Nia Williams)
