By Rene Wagner and Miranda Murray

BERLIN (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.

By comparison, Germany’s overall exports rose by only 0.3% in the period as business with the U.S. and China shrank.

Germany faces a record trade deficit with China, with exports over the first nine months of the year dropping 11.9%, while those to the United States have also fallen by 7.4%, due in large part to Washington’s t

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