Germany's Defense Market: U.S. Industry's Access and Performance

摘要

Historically, Germany has been U.S. defense industry's largest allied customer.In recent years, however, U.S. industry's share of the German defense market has declined both absolutely and relative to that of other foreign sources. We conclude, nonetheless, that U.S. industry has had equitable access to the German defense procurement market over the years. We attribute the drop in U.S. industry's market share to the growing competitiveness of German defense industry and the maturing of Germany's defense economic relationship with other European Community countries. Germany's defense procurement policies are formal and detailed, and they provide for national treatment for all foreign sources. However, foreign sources may be required to provide substantial industrial benefits or industrial participation by German firms in their procurement contracts with the German Federal Ministry of Defense. To permit continued U.S. industry access to the German defense market, we recommend a number of steps to expand the scope and improve the quality of defense trade information exchanged between the United States and Germany. We also recommend coordinating with Germany on NATO and other efforts to remove transatlantic defense trade barriers.