French media: The US has handed over its position as Germany's largest trading partner to China

Reference News Network, October 26 - According to the French magazine "L'Express" website on October 24, in the first eight months of 2025, China became Germany's largest trading partner again, surpassing the United States, which was first in 2024. According to Reuters, the total import and export trade between Germany and China from January to August this year reached 163.4 billion euros, while the trade with the United States was 162.8 billion euros.

Last year, the United States ended China's eight-year dominance as Germany's largest trading partner. However, with Trump returning to the White House and resuming tariff policies, the US itself has paid a price. These tariffs caused a sharp drop in Germany's exports to the US, falling by 7.4% year-on-year to 99.6 billion euros in the first eight months of 2025.

On July 28, the agreement between Washington and Brussels stipulated that the US would impose a 15% tariff on European products. The German Association of the Automotive Industry immediately warned that this would "cause losses of billions of euros for the German automotive industry each year and bring heavy pressure during its transformation period." Two days later, Mercedes-Benz, a German automotive giant, announced that its net profit for the first half of 2025 dropped from 6.1 billion euros to 2.7 billion euros, a decline of about 56% year-on-year.

Dirk Jandura, chairman of the German Association of Wholesale and Foreign Trade, told Reuters: "US tariffs and trade policies are undoubtedly an important reason for the decline in sales." He pointed out that demand for traditional German exports to the US (such as cars, machinery, and chemical products) has decreased.

Karsten Buehler, head of macroeconomics at ING, believes that due to ongoing tariff threats and a strong euro, German exports to the US are unlikely to recover in the short term.

Although Germany's exports to China fell by 13.5% in the first eight months of 2025, reaching 54.7 billion euros, imports from China increased by 8.3%, reaching 108.8 billion euros. (Translated by Pan Geping)

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7565434723149873714/

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