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BERLIN, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Germany's export business, struggling under high U.S. tariffs and a slump in China, got a welcome shot in the arm from trade with Eastern Europe in the first nine months of this year, Germany's eastern business association said on Wednesday. Exports to 29 countries in Central and Eastern Europe as well as Central Asia, grew by 2.35% to 216 billion euros ($251 billion) in the January-to-September period, it said. Sign up here. By comparison, Germany's overall exports rose by only 0.3% in the period as business with the U.S. and China shrank. RELIABLE PARTNERS ONCE AGAIN "The EU states in Central and South-Eastern Europe were once again reliable partners for the German export industry over the course of the year," Cathrina Claas-Muehlhaeuser, chairwoman of the Ost-Ausschuss Eastern Business Association, told Reuters. "Exports to the region's two largest markets, Poland and the Czech Republic, alone grew by almost 5.6 billion euros." By contrast, exports to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Georgia shrank significantly, and trade with Russia and Belarus continued to shrink due to Ukraine war-related sanctions. Overall, trade with countries in the region grew by 2.9% year on year to about 413 billion euros, said the group. GERMANY MUST EXPAND RELATIONS IN REGION Claas-Muehlhaeuser stressed that economic and political relations with cooperative countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus must be urgently expanded amid competition. "We are concerned to see how China, as well as the U.S., are consistently pursuing their economic interests there and in the Western Balkans," she said, calling on the European Union to use its Global Gateway infrastructure investment programme to ensure "we do not lose these growth markets to our competitors." Existing trade barriers must also be systematically removed in the European single market, and EU enlargement to the east and south-east needs to be pursued more decisively, she added. ($1 = 0.8575 euros) Reporting by Rene Wagner; Writing by Miranda Murray; Editing by Hugh Lawson Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Speed editor on the Berlin hub who provides general coverage on everything from politics to energy in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with the goal of getting the news out as quickly as possible. Miranda previously worked at the German press agency dpa and Chicago Tribune
