The European Commission announced Nov. 13 that it would review Germany's external trade position. Germany has been increasingly criticized by Europe and by the United States over its strong trade surplus. According to Eurostat, Germany has run a trade surplus since the early 1990s. As the surplus has grown, so has criticism of German trade performance, especially with the emergence of the European crisis. While troubled economies are pressured to lower domestic consumption and improve the competitiveness of their exports through unpopular labor market reform, Germany is blamed for not contributing its share to the rebalancing of the eurozone.
Germany is accused of undermining exporters in other countries and not consuming enough domestically to help troubled eurozone countries. But there are few measures to strengthen exporters in struggling countries, and it is doubtful whether a weakening of Germany's exporters and stronger domestic demand would have the desired results for exporters elsewhere, particularly in southern Europe. Even if the union's investigation does not have immediate consequences, it is significant because it focuses on Germany's economic model, which is based on a strong exports sector.
