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Image copyright AFP Image Caption The UK is now the number one trade partner Germany.
We will hear a lot this week on the UK's relationship with the rest of Europe The 50th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty also highlights the relationship between Germany and France, these days seems decidedly tense .
But we forget that you should not the United Kingdom is very important for Europe as well and - on a measure, at least - our economy is more important for Germany than France.
We are constantly reminded that the euro area is the largest trading partner of the United Kingdom but the reverse is also true.
If you look at exports and imports, the economies of the euro area are more business with the UK than any other country, including the US On average, we recorded almost 14 export zone euro between 2007 and 2011 and a little over a tenth of its imports.
If it does surprise you, maybe that the United Kingdom has recently overtaken France and the United States to become the largest trading partner of Germany.
David Marsh points out in a note published today that the combined trade of Germany with the United Kingdom during the first nine months of 2012 came to EUR 153bn 128bn; 204bn.
The numbers on the side of the United Kingdom suggest that the reverse is also true - the total trade with Germany is now slightly higher than anywhere else in the UK, including the United States.
This can not last, but it is consistent with a broader trend in the trade of Germany, far from the other countries in the euro area, which has been much debated in Germany and France, and has been reported this year last by the people of Goldman Sachs.
The latest figures show that only 37 imports and German exports in the first three quarters of 2012 were with other member states of the euro, down more than 45 when the euro started in 1999.
As ministers of the UK Trade know very well, the most dynamic markets for German products aren t in the UK, but in the Bric economies.
The people of India and China now represent about 10 German exports We only sell five of our exports to these economies, and France did not do much better to 6 consolation prizes in the Netherlands, Spain and the Republic of Ireland are even worse.
In 2020, Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs predicted that Germany exports will double in China and France.
It is dangerous to extrapolate Especially, perhaps, where China is concerned, but it is fair to say that trade relations between Germany and its partners in the euro, which helped lead the creation of the single currency in the first place, are not nearly as strong as they were 10 years ago, while trade with Germany EUR outings such as the United Kingdom and Switzerland continues to grow.
I was an annual meeting of British and French politicians and business leaders this weekend, where the irony of recent events in North Africa has been much discussed our bilateral relationship with France Security was louder, as our relations on European issues aa hit a new low.
A major French thinker and businessman joked We make war with the British, and we try to make money with the Germans The UK seems to be learning how to do the same.
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