In the course of 2007 more than 570,000 businesses in Germany bought from or delivered goods to other EU member states. Thus, in 2007 the number of German companies taking part in the so-called intra-trade within the EU increased by 40,000 as compared to the year 2006. More than 470,000 companies imported goods from other EU member states to Germany while aobut 236,000 exported products and services from Germany to the EU.
However, not only businesses from Germany take part in the German intra-trade within the EU: about 6700 (1.2%) of the approximately 570,000 businesses in the intra-trade have their headquarters outside Germany. With regard to imports of goods from other EU member states to Germany, the number of non-German businesses amounts to about 4500.
Among these the group of companies with headquarters in the Netherlands is the biggest (908 businesses). With regard to haulage companies the number of foreign businesses amounts to about 3,800. In this category most businesses (almost 1500) have Swiss headquarters. In terms of turnover generated the importance of foreign businesses is even bigger. Thus, in 2007 foreign exporting companies generated 7% of total turnover while this percentage was 10.5% for importing businesses with headquarters outside Germany. 