FRANKFURT — While Germany’s big companies groan under the US tariff burden, many small and midsize firms, the backbone of Europe’s top economy, are confident their highly-specialised goods will just keep selling.

The hope is that, in niche areas where American customers have no obvious alternatives, buyers across the Atlantic will just have to accept paying higher prices for their high-tech machines and products.

“The customer in America pays the tariff,” said Thorsten Bauer, co-head of laser maker Xiton Photonics, based in the western city of Kaiserslautern. “We don’t notice a thing.”

Bauer’s firm of about 20 workers is in this respect typical of the often family-owned enterprises that make up the German “Mittelstand”, Deutsche Bank executive Jan-Philipp Gillmann said.

“German Mittelstand companies are somewhat protected since they are often very specialised, sometimes the only firm that makes a particular part,” said Gillmann, Deutsche Bank’s Head of Corporate Bank Europe.

“The cost of the tariff will often be borne by the consumer.”

Under a framework deal agreed in late July, EU exports are set to face across-the-board US tariffs of 15 per cent from Thursday — higher than traditional duties but much lower than Trump’s threatened 30 per cent.

While German corporate titans such as automaker Volkswagen have grabbed headlines by taking tariff hits measured in the billions, many of the smaller firms hope to weather the headwinds.

Brian Fuerderer, head and founder of Microqore Medical, a high-end surgical equipment maker with 32 employees, agreed.

“It’s not possible to just copy ‘Made in Germany,’” he said. “There’s not much comparable to what we in Germany do when it comes to medical technology.”

He added that US tariffs would have to rise to 30 or even 40 per cent before American customers got cold feet.

“For Volkswagen, for big business, it’s hard,” he said. “But if you have a real niche, something only certain specialists can do, demand will carry on as before.”