US was Germany's biggest trading partner in 2015

The United States overtook France to become Germany's most important trading partner last year for the first time since the mid-1970s, official data showed on Wednesday.

"According to provisional datas, goods worth a total 173.2 billion euros ($188 billion) changed hands between Germany and the US in 2015," the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement.

"That meant the US were Germany's most important trading partner in 2015, followed by France with 170.1 billion euros worth of goods and the Netherlands with 167.6 billion euros," the statement said.