Exclusive KfW survey: Donald Trump is driving German medium-sized companies out of the USA | EUROtoday

For Germany’s medium-sized companies, the United States has considerably misplaced its enchantment below US President Donald Trump. More than each second firm reviews detrimental results of commerce, financial and overseas coverage on their very own enterprise.

As a consequence, many small and medium-sized firms are withdrawing from US enterprise. This is the results of a consultant particular survey by the state growth financial institution KfW in January as a part of the SME panel that it has been accumulating for a few years.

Accordingly, the US coverage of the previous few months has had a detrimental affect on 52 % of German medium-sized firms with enterprise relationships within the United States: 25 % report “very negative” penalties, and an extra 27 % report “somewhat negative” penalties. 36 % see no adjustments. Only seven % really feel favored by the political selections since Trump took workplace in January 2025.

The solutions from 1,700 medium-sized firms with annual gross sales of lower than 500 million euros have been included within the analysis. The numbers can be found completely to WELT AM SONNTAG.

The penalties are drastic: The proportion of medium-sized firms that also have enterprise relationships within the United States fell inside a 12 months from 16.4 % in January 2025 to 11.3 % in January 2026. In September 2019, when the query was already requested, it was even 18.7 %.

Many firms have withdrawn from exports particularly: in January 2026, 5.8 % of all medium-sized firms nonetheless had prospects within the United States. In January 2025, 8.5 % of medium-sized firms have been nonetheless sending items to the world’s largest financial system.

KfW chief economist Dirk Schumacher doesn’t count on a fast return of medium-sized companies to the United States. “The reluctance of German companies to enter the US market is likely to continue until they have more confidence in American economic policy again,” he mentioned.

The US authorities’s aggressive tariff coverage in current months has contributed to the skepticism. However, the renewed uncertainty about their future growth is placing a fair larger pressure on firms than the upper tariffs. In February, the US Supreme Court declared a big a part of the tariffs ineffective, whereupon Trump introduced an interim answer.

This article was written for the WELT Economic Competence Center and “Business Insider Germany” created.

Karsten Seibel is a enterprise editor in Berlin. He reviews on finances and tax coverage, but additionally commerce and tariffs.