German Foreign Trade Research Articles

Safeguarding Croatian Strategic Industries Within the Scope of the EU Foreign Direct Investment Regime

A European Union (EU)-wide screening regime entered into force in October 2020, marking the turning point in the Member States’ investment relations with third countries, most notably, the emerging economies of the Far East. Most Central and Eastern European (CEE) states have recently embraced novel screening solutions; some legislative proposals are still pending in a few states. These regulatory changes are the result of the socio-economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, which threatens a major fire sale of resources that are deemed critical for the Member States’ national security and public order. In this paper, the authors examine the existing screening mechanisms regarding foreign direct investment (FDI) in five EU countries: Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, and Poland. Given the apparent lack of comprehensive FDI screening mechanisms in Croatia, the authors consider that the findings of this comparative analysis could help Croatian legislator establish a comprehensive legal regime for FDI pouring into Croatian strategic industries. This paper argues that Croatia should introduce novel screening mechanisms along the lines of the Germanic legal tradition, most notably, the CEE and the German foreign trade and payments law. The authors suggest potential solutions de lege ferenda that would fit the scope and objectives of the screening regulation. Following the introduction, the second section of the paper glances through FDI screening mechanisms in four CEE countries. In the third section, the paper revisits the existing Croatian legislation on FDI control. The fourth section considers possible amendments thereof within the context of the German foreign trade and payments law. The fifth section summarises and concludes the paper.

“Nothing More Than a Large Warehouse, which Stands Under Dutch Control”

The article investigates the economic links between the Italian trading companies Brentano, Guaita and Bolongaro, which migrated to Frankfurt on Main before 1700, and the Dutch trading centre Amsterdam. In the eighteenth century they operated branches in both cities and purchased mainly Italian goods and colonial goods from Amsterdam. However, the Amsterdam branches soon grew beyond the role of pure purchasing offices for goods for the German market and became involved in the Amsterdam stacking business and intra-European maritime trade. As a result, the representatives in Amsterdam succeeded in raising the company owners to the upper class there, with the Dutch branches often splitting off from their German parent companies after 1750. The detailed case study analysis here provides an illustration of the great importance of West German foreign trade with the Netherlands when Amsterdam connected the German hinterland to the Atlantic world economy.

Anticipation of food safety and fraud issues: ISAR - A new screening tool to monitor food prices and commodity flows

Despite major efforts, food safety and food fraud issues continue to appear, showing the need for an improved risk anticipation to enhance consumer protection. To this end, we need a holistic view on the food production beyond the classical farm to fork principle and consider developments in- and outside the food chain. Commodity flows and prices are considered as relevant drivers for the emergence of food safety and fraud issues. To conveniently obtain information on these drivers and to monitor their changes, we developed a tool to analyze the volume, origin and price of foods imported to Germany, based on data of the German Foreign Trade Statistic. The ISAR-Tool (Import Screening for the Anticipation of Food Risks) facilitates a descriptive analysis of the import data of about 2400 different food items imported from 220 countries and an automated analysis of the data for a systematic detection of unexpected changes in import volumes and prices. For the automated approach, time series analyses using SARIMA and ETS models are applied and data points outside the model-based 99% prediction intervals are considered as potentially relevant changes. Monthly, more than 2000 of such changes are detected, leaving us with the challenging task of their evaluation for food safety and food fraud. To deal with the vast amount of results, of which the great majority cannot be linked to food safety or fraud issues, we implemented prioritization routines, and the 200 most critical results are considered for further expert evaluation. Despite remaining challenges in the performed evaluation process of the automated analysis, the described approach facilitates already at this stage an improved identification of food safety and food fraud hazards and the implementation of more targeted food safety controls, as shown in this paper. Our most prominent example of an identified food fraud and food safety risk was the detection of massive adulterations of hazelnut products with almonds and cashews, which were associated to the observed all-time high in hazelnut prices. Based on our findings, we conclude that the ISAR-Tool and the described analyses of commodity flows and prices can be important elements in the anticipation of risks and enable an enhanced consumer protection.

German foreign trade surpluses – a problem for the European Monetary Union?

In the light of the controversial discussion on the cause and effects to the total economy of the high export surplus of one country and their consequences for other countries, the concrete question as to whether high German balance on current account surplus mentioned is indeed responsible, as alleged, for macroeconomic divergence in the European Union or for balance on current account deficits in other European countries will is addressed in this paper. We examine how and to what extent German export success represents a lasting threat to the stability of the Eurozone and impedes economic recovery in instable countries in the south, or whether it can even offer those countries better chances to overcome crisis and stabilise their economy. The study suggests that politically enforced shrinkage of German exports accompanied by a weakening of the German economy scarcely benefits deficit countries. Due to the very close intertwining of German industrial intermediate inputs import trade with European crisis partner countries, with their great demand for German investment goods exports, a decrease in German exports would not only cause a drop in their exports, but it would also whittle down the basis for public European financial help for handling crisis, help for which Germany provides a large proportion of the liability.

Československo-západoněmecké obchodněpolitické a dopravněpolitické vztahy v období 1949-1967

Vznik obou německých států v roce 1949 vážně poznamenal hospodářské, zvláště obchodní a dopravní vztahy ve střední Evropě na celá desetiletí. Příslušnost Československa a Spolkové republiky Německo k různým vojenskopolitickým a hospodářskopolitickým, tedy i dopravnětarifním uskupením vytvořila určitý rámec, resp. limity vzájemných obchodněpolitických a dopravněpolitických vztahů.Vysvětlení zachování hospodářských a dopravních kontaktů obou států tkví jednak ve formě a obsahu uzavřených smluv. První smlouvy totiž uzavíraly britská a americká a francouzská vojenská okupační administrativa a tyto smlouvy nebyly vypovězeny. Naopak se tyto smlouvy staly vlastně základem, který nezpochybňovala ani jedna ze stran. Jednak se jednalo o geografickou blízkost, podobnou a současně se doplňující strukturu ekonomiky.Ve srovnání s předválečným vývojem byl československo-západoněmecký objem zbožního obchodu nesrovnatelně malý, resp. mizivý. Zatímco československý podíl zahraničního obchodu na obchodu Spolkové republiky nečinil ani jedno procento, západoněmecký podíl na obchodu Československa dosáhl 5-6 %.Základním prostředkem dopravního styku zůstala ve sledovaném období ještě železnice. Doprava se realizovala přes tři pohraniční stanice. Postupně se stabilizoval železniční provoz po stránce technické, provozní a tarifní.V oblasti vodní dopravy nedošlo po dobu studené války kromě období berlínské blokády k přerušení labské plavby. I když nebyla po roce 1945 dohodnuta nová plavební akta na Labi, nestala se tato skutečnost zásadní překážkou plavby na Labi. V praxi se uznávala internacionalizace Labe. Hamburk zůstal pro Československo nejvýznamnějším západoevropským námořním přístavem. Objem tranzitu i exportu a importu přes Hamburk postupně vzrůstal a dokonce v polovině padesátých let překročil předválečný objem. Význam Hamburku pro československý tranzit tkvěl na jedné straně v geografické blízkosti, v kvalitě poskytovaných služeb a v nabídce širokého obchodního spojení se světem a v neposlední řadě v úspoře deviz. Na straně druhé představoval československý tranzit přes Hamburk důležitý faktor nejen z hlediska hospodářského, ale i obchodněpolitického, neboť umožňoval rozvíjet hospodářskodopravní kontakty mezi Československem a Spolkovou republikou. Uzavření smlouvy o zřízení obchodních zastoupení a regulaci zbožového a platebního styku v roce 1967 předznamenalo navázání diplomatických vztahů na počátku sedmdesátých let a stabilizovalo vzájemné hospodářské a potažmo i dopravní vztahy.

Book review: German Foreign Trade Policies in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer

Book review: German Foreign Trade Policies in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer

Book review: German Foreign Trade Policies in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer

Book review: German Foreign Trade Policies in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer Get access Patricia Clavin Patricia Clavin Keele University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar German History, Volume 17, Issue 3, July 1999, Pages 437–438, https://doi.org/10.1177/026635549901700329 Published: 01 July 1999

German Foreign Trade Policy Towards the East in the Light of Recent Research

Robert Mark Spaulding, Osthandel und Ostpolitik. German Foreign Trade Policies in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer (Oxford and Providence: Berghahn, 1997), 546 pp., £60, ISBN 1–57181–039–0.Volker R. Berghahn, ed., Quest for Economic Empire. European Strategies of German Big Business in the Twentieth Century (Oxford and Providence: Berghahn, 1996), 224 pp., £35:00 (hb), £16.50 (pb), ISBN 1–57181–027–7.Meung-Hoan Hoh, Westintegration versus Osthandel. Politik und Wirtschaft in den Ost-West-Beziehungen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 1949–1958, (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1995), ISBN 3–631–49003–8.Friedrich von Heyl, Der innerdeutsche Handel um Eisen- und Stahl, 1945–1972. Deutsch-deutsche Beziehungen im Kalten Krieg. (Cologne: Böhlau, 1997), DM 64, ISBN 3–412–03897–0.Research into the history of foreign trade relations languishes in a grey area between the history of foreign policy and economic history. This is particularly true of German trade relations with eastern Europe during the Cold War, even though this was precisely the time when the topic was the focal point of public interest. Before Chancellor Willy Brandt and Foreign Minister Walter Scheel introduced their New Ostpolitik, the Federal Republic's trade with the East (Osthandel) was one of the most controversial issues in foreign policy. The reasons for this were, in no small measure, historical, closely tied up with the ‘ghost of Rapallo’ and the myth of red trade. The treaty concluded between the German empire and Soviet Russia at the economic conference of Genoa in 1922 created the fatal impression that this was a case of two underdogs in the international community getting together to undermine the status quo established by the Treaty of Versailles. From then on, whenever the ‘ghost of Rapallo’ was invoked what was meant was that Germany could be sure of Soviet support for the implementation of its revisionist claims in the East, and thus have greater room for manoeuvre vis-à-vis the West.

Ostpolitik and Osthandel. German Foreign Trade Policies in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer

Ostpolitik and Osthandel. German Foreign Trade Policies in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer

Regional development of German foreign trade in the 1990s

With a double-digit growth rate, Germany's export sector was again very successful last year. While the industrialised countries continue to be Germany's main trading partners, growth in the past few years has been stimulated by trade with the booming regions of Southeast Asia and Central and Eastern Europe as well as with Central and South America. The current crisis in Southeast Asia has led to an abrupt slowdown in the region's economic development. What will be the consequences for global trade in general and for German foreign trade in particular?

Situation et perspectives des relations économiques germano-soviétiques au seuil des années 1980

Present Situation and Prospects for Development of German- Soviet Economie Relations in the 1980's. For many German firms, trade with East-European countries has become a tradition over the decades and accounted for 15% of German foreign trade volume prior to World War II. Internationally known companies such as Otto Wolff AG, the Krupp Group and Deutsche Bank AG have had close business ties with the U.S.S.R. since the early 20's. These relations have been upheld on a pragmatic footing under various political constellations right up to the present day. It can be considered a traditional feature of German trade with the East that private companies maintain contacts with their East-European business partners independently and without any special political or legal assistance from the state. While in the 50's and 60's the Federal Republic of Germany was in a position of front-line political confrontation with the U.S.S.R., the German business community regarded the promotion of trade relations as a stabilizing element in international politics. German trade with the East has always seen itself as a long-term, independent manifestation of the fundamental, international division of labour in the face of changing — at times rapidly changing — foreign policy doctrines. German companies geared their business relations with Eastern Europe solely to the calculable, private entrepreneurial profit and loss indices of the individual firms — without government intervention or promotion measures — and to this extent treated trade with the East, despite its unique features, as part of general worldwide international business. In the 70's, a number of treaties were concluded between the Federal Republic and the U.S.S.R., which dealt among other things with economic questions and affected mutual trade relations. The long-term German-Soviet agreement on economic cooperation concluded in May 1978, modeled on Finnish and French treaties, provides a legal basis for existing relations and projects future developments. Emphasis is placed above all on planned cooperation with regard to large projects — in particular in the energy and raw material sectors — as well as on intensifying and diversifying industrial cooperation, also involving small and medium- sized firms. The pragmatic aim of promoting trade relations between the Federal Republic and the U.S.S.R. is to create normal forms of international economic cooperation as a factor in an economically optimal, politically constructive, long- term international division of labour with the aim of achieving a calculable, mutual benefit.

Germany’s trade with Latin America

This study analyses the development of the Federal Republic’s foreign trade relations with 20 Latin American states within the 15 years from 1963 to 1977. It examines primarily the exchange of goods between the Federal Republic and the seven most important Latin American countries which on an average of the last 15 years accounted for more than 75% of the German foreign trade with the Central and South American states.

A logit analysis of the factor content of West German foreign trade

Eine Logit-Analyse des Faktorgehalts des westdeutschen Auβenhandels. — In dieser Studie haben wir die Anwendung der Logit-Analyse zur Prufung von Hypothesen aus dem Heckscher-Ohlin-Handelsmodell erprobt und dabei Daten von Westdeutschland benutzt. Unsere Ergebnisse veranschaulichen die ahnlichkeiten zwischen der Regressionsanalyse und einem vergleichbar spezifizierten Modell mit einer abhangigen 0,1-Variablen. Es ist offensichtlich, daβ das Vorzeichen der Nettoexporte allein betrachtlichen Erklarungswert fur die Groβe der Nettoexporte besitzen kann. Dies deutet darauf hin, daβ die Logit-Analyse zweckmaβigerweise benutzt werden kann, um die schwachere Hypothese zu testen, die mehr die Richtung als die Starke des Handels betrifft. Wir haben auch gezeigt, daβ die scheinbar widerspruchlichen Ergebnisse, die Harkness und Kyle fur die Vereinigten Staaten mit Hilfe der Logit-Analyse gefunden haben, zu den vergleichbaren Resultaten der Regressionsanalyse nicht wirklich im Gegensatz stehen. Wahrend unmittelbare Vergleichbarkeit zwischen Ergebnissen der Logit-Analyse und der Regressionsanalyse schwer zu erreichen ist, liegen nach unserer Meinung den beiden Verfahren fundamentale ahnlichkeiten dann zugrunde, wenn es sich darum handelt Aussagen zu testen, die aus dem Heckscher-Ohlin-Modell abgeleitet wurden.

Change in the German foreign trade climate

Change in the German foreign trade climate

West German foreign trade with EFTA-countries in the 1st half of 1968

West German foreign trade with EFTA-countries in the 1st half of 1968

German Foreign Trade and Industry After the First World War

Alleged effects of the Versailles settlements, 615. — I. The export trade: totals, 616; relation to world trade, 619; comparison with prewar figures, 620; relation to home sales, 621; composition, 622; distribution, 625. — II. The import trade: totals, 627; luxuries, 629; raw materials, 631; agricultural products, 631. — III. Industry: output, 633; unemployment, 634. — IV. National income, 635. — V. Conclusions, 636.

Analysis of Germany's Foreign Trade and the War

IN this survey and analysis of Germany's foreign trade I have attempted to deal with three problems in particular: firstly, with the changes that have taken place in the volume of Germany's foreign trade during post-war years; secondly, with the changes in the direction and orientation of Germany's foreign trade; and lastly, as volume and direction of trade have a direct bearing on the degree of Germany's vulnerability to foreign interference in times of war, I shall have to consider the probable effects of the import and export blockade. There is a close connection between the political aspirations of the German Government and the principles which govern her foreign trade policy. The publications of the Institut fuir Konjunkturforschung explain the new conception which underlies German foreign trade. It is argued that commodity benefits accrue to nations from the utilisation of all absolute and comparative cost advantages under a wide system of international free trade. But there are also obvious dangers in too close an economic and political dependence of nations upon each other. The spreading evil of depressions is quoted on the one hand as such a danger and the threatening sanctions clause in the League Covenant is considered on the other hand as a device to interfere with nations which intend to rectify the injustice done to them at Versailles. In order to reduce the effectiveness of these and other influences, the present regime has deliberately repudiated the welfare criterion on which free trade is internationally based. The new criterion for Germany's foreign trade is found in what her leaders have called an absolute minimum of import requirements . Irrespective of costs, all available

The German Economic Situation and Foreign Trade

The German Economic Situation and Foreign Trade

The Effect of Germany's Industrial Condition

IN the early eighties Germany was exporting annually a large percentage of her population. At that time the United States was getting the greater part of this exportation. The German government, recognizing the fact that those going to our country were totally lost to Germany, made an effort to deflect the stream of emigration to South America, particularly to Argentina and Brazil, where the emigrants remained to a certain degree colonists maintaining a rather definite relationship with the mother country. However important it was to German foreign trade to have outposts in remote parts of the world of her own people, it was deemed of greater moment to the general welfare to export products rather than people. Dr. Moulton very truly says,l the labor supply increasing rapidly, the capital supply also had to increase or else Germany would fall behind in the race for productive efficiency. Within the past few decades Germany's capacity to apply scientific developments to commercial ends has been equal or superior to that of any other country. With that virile industrial population and the firm determination to compete with the world, particularly in the production of iron, chemicals, and textiles, Germany found that emigration was not necessary and that the well-being of her people under the changed conditions was maintained on a higher plane than ever before.

German Foreign Trade and the Reparation Payments

I. Germany's economic paradox, 482. — The pre-war trade balance, 483. — Why the London Settlement on reparations broke down, 483. — The two periods of falling exchange since the Armistice, and the different behavior of the foreign trade, 485. — II. The reasons for the paradox: composition of the exports and the imports, 487. — Effect upon imports of the abolition of food price control, 489. — Relation of United States exports to German imports last year, 489. — The system of export control, 490. — Effects of depreciating exchange on home buying, 492. — The export trade has responded more sympathetically to a moderate rise of the mark, 493. — A growth of exports sufficient to pay reparations depends largely upon recovery of the Russian market, 493. — How the imports have been paid for and the reparation charges met, 495. — III. Germany's experiences furnish light on the theory of foreign exchange under paper, 498. — Export and domestic prices compared, 499. — The causal sequence appears to have run as follows: reparation payments, depreciating exchange, rising export and import prices, rising internal prices, budgetary deficits and increased private demand for credit, increased note issue, 501.