BERLIN, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Germany's small- and medium-sized companies (SME) are assessing China to be a more reliable trading partner than the United States or UK, a study published by the German Commerzbank on Monday showed.
According to the study conducted by the German opinion research institute Forsa, 30 percent of Germany's SMEs trust China as a trading partner. Seventeen percent of German SMEs currently consider the U.S. as a reliable trading partner while only 8 percent think the same about the UK.
"Alarmism or battening down the hatches is the wrong approach," commented Holger Bingmann, president of the German federation for wholesale, foreign trade and services (BGA) and patron of the Commerzbank study.
Almost half of the 2,000 companies surveyed for the study fear the negative effects on their business due to increasing global trade conflicts. Forty-two percent of German SMEs also fear that U.S. foreign and trade policy could damage their business.
According to the study, German SMEs are also burdened by "homemade topics". Nearly two-thirds of the companies active in the automotive industry would be afraid of negative effects of the diesel scandal surrounding illegally manipulated exhaust emission values of diesel cars.
More than three-quarters of German SMEs in the food/drinks and tobacco industry fear climate change and its negative consequences for their business.
"We are supporting politicians to advocate a multilateral and rules-based global trading system so that cost-effective and sustainable trading is possible at fair conditions," said Bingmann.
Companies would be adapting themselves to the "changing framework conditions", the study read. There would be no "patent remedies" for this adaption. However, certain "trends" could be recognizable, noted the study.
SMEs in Germany would concentrate their business on their core products and the domestic market while large companies would focus on innovation and international diversification.
Seventy-seven percent of German SMEs cited "bureaucracy" as a problem when doing business in other markets. Price fluctuations of raw materials and import duties would be posing additional "hurdles" for more than half of exporting German SMEs.
Nevertheless, it would be "encouraging" to see how many German SMEs would be "positioned on the international stage", said Bingmann.
