Going International 2022

10.03.2022

Once a year, the Chambers of Industry and Commerce survey internationally active companies in Germany about their experiences and expectations in foreign business.

Around 2,700 German companies with cross-border operations took part in the survey about their operations worldwide  in the first half of February. According to their own statements, a good half (54 percent) of them feel an acute increase in hurdles on their international business. By comparison, 2017 not even a third of companies registered an increase in trade barriers. 

On the list of the biggest trade barriers – before the war in Ukraine – the sanctions mentioned by 24 percent took the fifth place. However, companies in February had found "local certification requirements" and "increased security requirements" (49 percent each), as well as "non-transparent legislation" (33 percent) and tariffs (32 percent) to be even more of a hindrance.

And hopes for an upward trend this year – despite full order books – were already absent in the survey period: For 2022, 18 percent of the companies expect a plus for their foreign business, but 21 percent expect a minus. This is better than in the previous two years, but negative on balance.

The universally expected strong growth after the 2020 Corona low thus fails to materialize. Instead, the trade barriers created during the pandemic threaten to solidify and accelerate the tendency toward protectionism that was already evident before. In addition to this are the sanctions imposed on Russia with their still unclear consequences for world trade.

The export growth of six percent for 2022 previously forecast by the DIHK in its economic survey "can no longer be achieved," according to Dr. Volker Treier, Chief Executive of Foreign Trade at DIHK. After all, companies are looking at high order backlogs. In order to reduce these, however, they must succeed in solving the problems in the supply chains.

The complete results of the survey, which was conducted in February and thus before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, can be downloaded here: