For Donald Trump, Germany’s trade surplus is something of a permanent provocation. The American president appears convinced that Germany isn’t playing fair, but rather providing its own industry with competitive advantages. Or, as Trump himself put it in an interview with the German tabloid newspaper Bild: “When you walk down Fifth Avenue, everybody has a Mercedes-Benz parked in front of his house. How many Chevrolets do you see in …

Sighs of relief resonated throughout the German business community when US President Donald Trump and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed on negotiating a EU-US trade deal in late July. In a joint statement, the two leaders decided to work together towards zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods. They also agreed to launch a close dialogue on standards in order to ease trade. An …

A conversation with Dieter Kempf, President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), on tariffs, trade balances, the image of German companies in the US and German industry’s contribution to the US economy.

The Federation of German Industries (BDI) is sup­porting Deutschlandjahr USA 2018/2019. What expectations do you have of the campaign?

Dieter Kempf: The goal of Deutschlandjahr is to render Germany and German industry more prominent in the US …

When William Bates first set foot in the factory belonging to the German auto supplier Bosch in northern Charleston, he could not have known that his life would soon change radically. He assumed it was going to be just one more in a series of joyless temporary jobs he’d been doing for years to keep himself afloat. He and his colleagues had been hired to paint the Bosch factory hall …

Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier speaks to The German Times on trade, Trump and taxing US companies in Europe

Minister Altmaier, economically speaking, Germany is on pretty firm footing. Economists call this the “strongest boom in two decades.” Growth is exceeding 2 percent; per-capita GDP is rising; unemployment is low; average wages and consumer spending are both growing. And yet, millions of people feel left behind. How …

Poverty and hunger are perennial threats to any political system. They are also the factors that in the 1970s prompted China’s Deng Xiaoping to seek a simple and effective way to restore his underdeveloped country. “It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white,” the former leader noted, “as long as it catches mice.”

In other words, Deng had declared that communism would henceforth be permitted to engage in …

The self-driving cars of the near future depend on precise digital geolocation data to navigate the urban jungle and arrive at their destinations. Here, a multinational company with offices in Berlin, has developed one of the best online mapping services currently available. Its mobility expertise is so sought-after that German carmakers BMW, Daimler and Audi have invested some €3 billion for access to Here’s navigation data to help steer their …

At first glance, it would appear that the German automotive industry has little reason to complain. Records are being broken left and right. In early July, the Stuttgart-based Daimler group announced it had sold more than 1.18 million Mercedes vehicles in the first six months of the year, breaking their half-year record.

Their competitors in Munich are also having a great run; between January and June 2018, BMW delivered more …