"As per, in 2017, the United States with €631 billion (16.9 per cent) and China €573 billion (15.3 per cent) continued to be the two main goods trading partners of the European Union (EU), well ahead of Switzerland (€261 billion,), Russia (€231 billion), Turkey (€154 billion) and Japan (€129 billion). These figures reflect an interesting proposition. After recording significant and almost continuous fall until 2011, the share of the United States in EU total trade in goods has increased nearly 18 per cent in 2015 and 2016, before decreasing again slightly in 2017."
As per, in 2017, the United States with €631 billion (16.9 per cent) and China €573 billion (15.3 per cent) continued to be the two main goods trading partners of the European Union (EU), well ahead of Switzerland (€261 billion,), Russia (€231 billion), Turkey (€154 billion) and Japan (€129 billion). These figures reflect an interesting proposition. After recording significant and almost continuous fall until 2011, the share of the United States in EU total trade in goods has increased nearly 18 per cent in 2015 and 2016, before decreasing again slightly in 2017.
China’s share almost tripled since 2000, rising from 5.5 per cent to 15.3 per cent in 2017. Russia’s share had been decreasing since 2012 from nearly 10 per cent to around 6 per cent in 2016, and picked up a little in 2017. The share of trade with Japan has fallen more than half since 2000 from 7.5 per cent in 2000 to 3.5 per cent in 2017. As for Switzerland and Turkey, their respective shares in trade remained relatively unchanged over the entire period. In 2017, machinery and transport equipment, other manufactured goods and chemicals represented the main categories of product traded by the EU.
Favoured export destinations
In almost all EU Member States, the main partner for goods exports in 2017 was another EU member, except for Germany, Ireland, and the UK (the United States was the main destination of exports) for Cyprus it was Libya and for Lithuania, Russia. In some member states, over a quarter of exports went to one single partner. This partner was Germany for the Czech Republic (33 per cent of exports of goods), Austria (29 per cent), Hungary (28 per cent), Poland (27 per cent) and Luxembourg (26 per cent). Around 27 per cent of Ireland’s exports went to the US and 25 per cent from Portugal went to Spain. Overall, Germany was the main destination for goods exports for 17 Member States and among the top three in 22 Member States. For extra-EU trade, that is trade with non-EU countries, the 3 main destinations of EU exports in 2017 were the US (20 per cent of all extra-EU exports), China (11 per cent) and Switzerland (8 per cent).
In 2017, the 28 EU Member States exported a total of € 5,226 billion of goods, of which €3,347 billion (or 64 per cent) were destined for another Member State of the EU (intra-EU trade). With about three-quarters or more of goods exported to other EU Member States, Slovakia (86 per cent intra-EU in total exports), Luxembourg and the Czech Republic (both 84 per cent), Hungary (81 per cent), Poland (80 per cent), Romania and Slovenia (both 76 per cent) and the Netherlands (75 per cent) recorded in 2017 the highest shares of intra-EU exports. At the opposite end of the scale, Cyprus (37 per cent) and the United Kingdom (48 per cent) were the only Member States that exported more goods to non-EU countries than within the EU in 2017.
Import scenario
The main partner for goods imports in 2017 was another member of the European Union in all Member States except Lithuania, for which Russia was the main country of origin of goods imported, and the Netherlands (China). In seven Member States, more than 25 per cent of imports were from a single partner country in 2017: Austria (42 per cent of imports of goods originated from Germany), Luxembourg (32 per cent from Belgium), Portugal (32 per cent from Spain), the Czech Republic (30 per cent from Germany), Ireland (29 per cent from the UK), Poland (28 per cent from Germany) and Hungary (26 per cent from Germany). Overall, Germany was among the top three countries of origin of goods imported in all EU Member States except Ireland and Cyprus. For extra-EU trade, the main country of origin of goods imported into the EU in 2017 remained China (20 per cent of all extra-EU imports), followed by the US (14 per cent) and Russia (8 per cent).
