America's Transatlantic Trade with Germany

After President Trump's recent visit to G7 and NATO in Europe, tensions between him and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel arose. Merkel alleged that the times in which some international partners could be relied upon unreservedly were gone. Trump retorted by criticising Germany's trade gap via Twitter.

Indeed, there is a pretty hefty balance deficit with Germany. The United States imported goods worth some $114 billion from Germany in 2016, while exports were worth around $49 billion for the same year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. All figures are on a nominal basis, i.e. not adjusted for inflation, according to the source.

In general, Germany is highly dependent on exports, while the United States on the contrary in general imports many more goods than it exports. About one third of the German-U.S. trade gap is due to German car sales, such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.