BERLIN, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Germany's trade surplus with the United States widened again in 2017, official figures published on Wednesday by the Federal Statistical Office show.
According to the Wiesbaden-based government statisticians, in the trade with the U.S., Germany exported goods worth 111.5 billion euros (137.5 billion U.S. dollars) while imported goods worth 61 billion euros, resulting in a surplus of 50.5 billion euros.
Last year, the Federal Statistical Office put the figure at 48.9 billion euros.
Germany has been criticized by the U.S. President Donald Trump for its large trade and current account surpluses.
The imbalance in trade between the countries has widened almost consistently from relatively modest surplus of 14.6 billion euros for Berlin in the year 2000 onwards to reach a record level of 53.5 billion euros in 2015.
Speaking to Xinhua on Wednesday, Thiess Petersen, senior economics expert at the Bertelsmann Foundation, warned that news of the latest trade surplus could prompt the Trump administration to "adopt protectionist measures against German or European firms."
"This would endanger the prosperity and low unemployment rate of the exporting nation Germany," Petersen added.
Amid a wider context of deteriorating transatlantic relations since the election of Trump, U.S. discomfort with German export competitiveness has further contributed to growing economic tensions between the U.S. and European Union (EU). Washington is currently openly mulling the introduction of punitive import tariffs on steel and aluminum, leading Brussels to threaten retaliation against Bourbon whisky and Harley-Davidson motorcycles among others.
"We are ready to act swiftly and appropriately if our exports are harmed by U.S. protectionism," a spokesperson for EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker recently told press.
Petersen argued that while a long-standing export boom had benefited Germany, especially with regards to jobs and tax revenue, it was "in the interest of the German economy" to lower its global trade surplus in the long run. The Bertelsmann Foundation expert highlighted domestic wage increases, as well as growth in public and private investment, as potential means to achieve this objective.
In the short run, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to work together with international partners such as China to defend free trade in response to Trump's "America First" policies.
