German exports
Low Iran business collapsed again
US President Trump is threatening all of Iran’s trading partners with punitive tariffs. German exports to the country had already collapsed. Who else does business with the Islamic Republic?
US President Donald Trump is threatening all of Iran’s trading partners with high punitive tariffs. “Effective immediately, any country that does business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a 25 percent tariff on all trade with the United States of America,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday. It is currently unclear whether the US punitive tariffs are also directed against Germany.
In any case, criticism comes from German exporters. “I don’t believe that this type of tariff can solve the problem in Iran,” said the President of the Federal Association of Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA), Dirk Jandura, at a press conference in Berlin today. “I think it was the wrong decision by the US President.” Germany is Iran’s largest trading partner in the EU, according to the BGA.
Only 0.1 percent of German exports
German business with Iran had already collapsed before the threat of US punitive tariffs. From January to November 2025, exports to the Islamic Republic fell by 25 percent to almost 871 million euros, according to data from the Federal Statistical Office, which was available to the Reuters news agency. This corresponds to a share of less than 0.1 percent of total German exports.
Economic relations between Germany and Iran have been close in the past. But because of sanctions, trade has been at a very low level for years. While the German-Iranian trade volume was 3.4 billion euros in 2017, it was only around 1.5 billion euros in 2024.
Sanctions because of the nuclear program
There are severe restrictions in the EU on foreign trade with Iran because of the country’s nuclear program. This is also noticeable in German imports. From January to November 2025, these added up to just under 217 million euros – the share of total German imports was less than 0.02 percent.
But what else is Germany actually doing with Iran? According to an evaluation by the federal economic development agency Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI), chemical products accounted for around a third of German deliveries to Iran in 2024, as did machinery. Almost half of imports were food, followed by raw materials (26.1 percent) and chemical products (12.0 percent).
Iran trades with 147 countries
Iran exported products to 147 trading partner countries in 2022, according to the most recent data available from the World Bank. The most important trading partners included China, other East Asian countries, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Germany.
In terms of value, fuel is Iran’s most important export. The Islamic Republic is a member of the OPEC oil cartel. The most important imported goods include primary products, vegetables, machinery and equipment.
In total, Iranian exports in 2022 amounted to $80.9 billion, according to the UN trade database COMTRADE. At that time, China, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates were Iran’s most important export partners.
Criticism from Israel of Germany’s Iran business
Iran’s total imports were $58.73 billion in 2022. Iran’s most important import partners were the United Arab Emirates, China, Turkey, India and – in fifth place – Germany.
In the past, there has been repeated sharp criticism from Israel of Germany’s Iran business. “Iran is not a normal trading partner,” said the Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor. “For every euro that flows into the hands of the mullahs, 50 cents come back as terror.”
With information from Angela Göpfert, ARD financial editorial team.
