Foreign commerce: 43,000 jobs away-the harmful consequence of the German export disaster | EUROtoday

Germany has an export drawback. “The location is really dark,” says Dirk Jandura, the president of the Federal Association of Wholesale, Foreign Trade, Services (BGA). The overseas commerce is within the disaster. And that isn’t excellent news for Germany.

Because behind the manufacturing commerce, the realm of ​​import export is the second strongest financial consider Germany, based on Jandura. He places gross sales at round 1.7 trillion euros, the variety of workers at round two million. “However, the point is the impulses that arise from foreign trade: Ultimately, every fourth job depends on it in Germany.

And the situation is currently negative. In 2024 there was already a minus of 1.7 percent in exports. The Federal Statistical Office reports to around 1.55 trillion euros. And in the first half of 2025 it went downhill. At 786 billion euros, exports were only slightly below the previous year’s level.

For the year as a whole, the BGA expects market losses, US customs policy and always new bureaucracy hurdles with a minus of 2.5 percent. “A sustainable upswing in German export continues to be not in sight,” says Jandura. Reaching earlier growth rates therefore remains unlikely. And the credit insurer Allianz Trade, who secures such businesses, is also pessimistic. “The uncertainty has come to remain,” explains Milo Bogaerts, the head of land from Allianz Trade in German -speaking countries.

The companies have long been responding to this mixture. According to the BGA, around 43,000 jobs in wholesale and foreign trade have been lost in the past twelve months. And according to the membership survey, around a quarter of the companies expect further losses. “So the state of affairs is severe,” emphasizes Jandura. Especially since it looks bad in all industries. “I’ve not heard any alerts that somebody exhibits and says that every little thing is definitely relaxed with him.”

Foreign trade “Am Scheideweg”

On the contrary: bankruptcies are currently increasing, reports the entrepreneur, who is the managing director of the electrical trader Oskar Böttcher from Berlin in the main profession. “In addition, the subject of quick -time work begins once more.” And that is unusual. “I do not know any part from my energetic time in wholesale the place we have been coping with quick -time work,” says Jandura. It was only in the Corona era for the first time in a larger style. But that had to do with closures and with all possible special factors. “After that, it really gathered once more.”

The BGA President therefore sees foreign trade “on the crossroads” and calls for a determined countermeasure on the part of politics. “If we need to cease the downward development in export and dampen the fast enhance in import, our firms urgently want extra freedom: much less paperwork, protected provide chains and, above all, the conclusion of latest free commerce agreements to beat tariffs and commerce limitations.”

The foreign trade association is disappointed by the new federal government under Friedrich Merz (CDU). “Hope was excessive of the election,” says Jandura. “For instance, {that a} clear view of the issues of the financial system returns.” The great promise to strengthen the location, to regain trust, to make economic growth possible again – all of this is insufficiently redeemed. It takes more impulses for economic growth and strengthening the location. “Without a flourishing financial system and thus effervescent tax income, the opposite authorities initiatives can’t be financed.”

“For ten years failed, removed from providing financial coverage”

The companies see both Berlin and Brussels in duty. “The German authorities and the European Commission have managed to captivate the financial system with ever new pointers in order that it could actually now not free itself by itself,” analyzes Jandura. But now there must be a liberation.

“We are at the least ten years of failed, non -offering financial coverage that our firms weakened step-by-step. At the identical time, the geopolitical state of affairs has tightened massively.” Politicians must finally understand and support German foreign trade as the core area of ​​its politics. Because that is the growth engine of the economy at the end. The BGA, like a number of other business associations, urges additional free trade agreements as well as the reduction of bureaucracy and regulation, which are becoming increasingly obstetrics.

The companies from Germany and the EU also expected more in terms of aggressive US customs policy, which are increasingly growing up to a burden on local exporters. “Trump makes use of Zölle as a political weapon. Our clear expectation to the EU Commission is due to this fact: The results of the negotiation with the USA have to be improved,” demands BGA boss Jandura. Meanwhile, many companies are trying to reorient themselves. “As a consequence, commerce flows and provide chains are transferring,” says Allianz Trade. “However, the scope for additional diversification of the provision chains is restricted with out main funding commitments,” says Ana Boata, head of business research at the credit insurer. “There are additionally different merchandise on the US examination checklist.”

Most recently there were declining exports to the USA for four months, showing figures from the Federal Statistical Office. In July, exports have sank to the lowest level since December 2021. “Many of the brand new US tariffs are so excessive that enterprise is solely impossible-for quite a few German exporters, this in reality means the lack of the US market,” Jandura ordered.

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Carsten Dierig is an financial editor in Düsseldorf. He reviews on commerce and client items, mechanical engineering and the metal business in addition to medium -sized firms.