00:00Yeah, hello there Paul. That's right, Robert Habeck flying into Beijing, not just an economy minister
00:04we should say, but also the Vice-Chancellor to Olaf Scholz. This is an important
00:09political meeting from one of Berlin's real political heavyweights. What we know is that he's expected to continue to pursue
00:16Germany's commercial links with China given the depth of cooperation that exists, particularly in business.
00:24But of course he does fly in at a slightly challenging time for the relationship given
00:28he is arriving off the back of that announcement by the European Commission that tariffs will indeed be
00:34introduced provisionally on Chinese-made electric vehicles. We know that he has been asked about that.
00:40He said he can't represent Europe entirely when it comes to that issue.
00:44He will leave that to the European Commission, but as one of the leaders of Europe's biggest economy
00:50he hopes that he may be able to try and
00:52resolve some of those concerns, as you say, about the threat of a trade war potentially blowing up here somewhat given
01:00how far apart the two sides are. We do also
01:04expect there to be some discussion around Germany's China strategy. Now we know
01:08Berlin at times has faced accusations within Europe that it sometimes operates a bit too bilaterally
01:14when it comes to its relationship with Beijing for its own commercial interests.
01:18I think Robert Habeck has heard some of that criticism, which is why we're hearing that he's going to try and take a more Europe approach
01:25to the relationship. But of course he does
01:28really fly in at an important time for the broader relationship between Germany and China just given the amount of
01:34business-to-business links that continue to exist between the two countries. So a really important moment, Trent.
01:41Germany's trade with China though has fallen short of its trade with the United States in the first quarter.
01:47Does that mean that China's position as Germany's top trading partner is now being challenged?
01:56Yeah, well this is very interesting data, isn't it? Because these new numbers suggest that an eight-year trend has now been snapped.
02:03Now for the past eight years China has been Germany's top trading partner, but these new data from the first quarter
02:10shows that Germany's trade with China in the first quarter was
02:1564 billion US dollars. With the US it was 67 billion, so a three billion dollar difference there.
02:21The US leapfrogging China to once again take the number one spot. If we look at German exports as well, a shift there.
02:30German exports to China fell
02:3214% while to the US they rose 4.1%. Now what the German Chamber of Commerce is saying
02:39in all of this is that they certainly believe that German business remains committed to China. This may just be a temporary
02:47blip, but they say they are expecting that as consumer demand
02:51potentially picks up in China, that could see exports once again rise.
02:55They also speak about the fact that for a really long time Germany has exported vehicles,
03:01machinery,
03:02pharmaceuticals to China, but that is shifting now because much of Chinese business is moving up the
03:09value chain ladder and is actually making a lot of those products themselves, and so they don't necessarily need as many
03:16German imports of some of that advanced machinery for example. So look, a lot of shifts taking place in the relationship.
03:23No doubt it will all be discussed by Robert Habeck as he meets those officials in Beijing.
03:29We also expect he will travel to Shanghai as well, Paul.
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