4.4. Summary
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and Berlin. In 16 cases, apart from the relation between Russia and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the traded volume was always high enough to be listed in the federal states’ top ten. The gravity model has shown that there are aspects which support its assumptions while other deny it. It can be stated that the model applied better for the exterior federal states than for the interior ones. A factor to be highlighted is the importance of trade with China and the United States despite their locations. While the United States are a member of the NATO and WTO, and a former Ally, there seems to be nothing to connect China with Germany, at least not in terms of the characteristics inspected. There is Luxembourg which does have a small GDP but, despite its proximity to Germany, it is not able to knock through the other countries. On the other hand, there is another country with a smaller GDP, Denmark, which does not appear on Germany’s list of top ten trading partners but plays an important role in trade with Schleswig-Holstein which it is its direct neighbour. Austria does appear on Germany’s list of top ten trading partners but, depending on the federal state, it increases its importance or it does not appear on the relevant top ten list at all. Poland increased its trade significance while its GDP was growing. On the contrary, the United Kingdom lost its position after it was known that it would no longer be a member of the EU. However, at this moment in time, it is difficult to judge whether the influencing factor is the leaving of the EU or the growing uncertainty. The dependency between Allies and their occupation zone has an influencing factor on trade which is comparable to Tinbergen’s observations with regard to trade with Commonwealth countries.
