Economy of The European Union

Trade

Further information: List of the largest trading partners of the European Union

The European Union is the largest exporter in the world and as of 2008 the largest importer of goods and services. Internal trade between the member states is aided by the removal of barriers to trade such as tariffs and border controls. In the eurozone, trade is helped by not having any currency differences to deal with amongst most members.

The European Union Association Agreement does something similar for a much larger range of countries, partly as a so-called soft approach ('a carrot instead of a stick') to influence the politics in those countries. The European Union represents all its members at the World Trade Organization (WTO), and acts on behalf of member states in any disputes. When the EU negotiates trade related agreement outside the WTO framework, the subsequent agreement must be approved by each individual EU member.

Main trading partners(2011)

Rank	Partners	Imports (Millions Euro)	% (of total)	Exports (Millions Euro)	% (of total)	Total trade (Millions Euro)	% (of total)
-	Total EU	1,685,398	100%	1,531,358	100%	3,216,756	100%
1	United States	184,245.6	10.9%	260,553.4	17.0%	444,799.0	13.8%
2	China	292,129.6	17.3%	136,222.3	8.9%	428,351.9	13.3%
3	Russia	198,342.6	11.8%	108,434.0	7.1%	306,776.6	9.5%
4	Switzerland	91,205.4	5.4%	121,671.5	7.9%	212,876.9	6.6%
5	Norway	93,449.8	5.5%	46,529.0	3.0%	139,978.8	4.4%
6	Turkey	47,592.7	2,8%	72,670.9	4.7%	120,263.6	3.7%
7	Japan	67,451.7	4.0%	48,967.5	3,2%	116,419.2	3.6%
8	India	39,314.7	2.3%	40,425.1	2,6%	79,739.8	2.5%
9	Brazil	37,776.0	2,2%	35,728.6	2,3%	73,504.6	2,3%
10	South Korea	36,100.7	2,1%	32,417.2	2,1%	68,517.8	2,1%
11	Saudi Arabia	28,122.6	1.7%	26,395.1	1,7%	54,517.7	1,7%
12	Canada	22,862.3	1,4%	29,609.1	1,9%	52,471.4	1,6%
13	Singapore	18,941.5	1,1%	27,131.3	1,8%	46,072.8	1,4%
14	Algeria	27,678.4	1,6%	17,205.4	1,1%	44,883.8	1,4%
15	South Africa	17,785.0	1,1%	25,634.2	1,7%	43,419.1	1,3%
16	Australia	11,761.9	0,7%	30,805.7	2,0%	42,567.6	1,3%
17	United Arab Emirates	8,775.7	0,5%	32,614.8	2,1%	41,390.5	1,3%
18	Hong Kong	10,133.5	0,6%	30,188.0	2,0%	40,321.5	1,3%
19	Taiwan	23,946.8	1,4%	16,213.4	1,1%	40,160.3	1,2%
20	Mexico	16,270.4	1,0%	23,802.4	1,6%	40,072.8	1,2%
21	Nigeria	24,147.4	1,4%	12,471.9	0,8%	36,619.3	1,1%
22	Ukraine	14,987.5	0,9%	21,196.4	1,4%	36,183.9	1,1%
23	Malaysia	21,004.0	1,2%	11,914.9	0,8%	32,918.9	1,0%
24	Israel	12,645.0	0,8%	16,835.6	1,1%	29,480.7	0,9%
25	Thailand	17,534.6	1,0%	11,858.4	0,8%	29,393.0	0,9%
26	Kazakhstan	22,725.2	1,3%	5,999.5	0,4%	28,724.7	0,9%
27	Iran	16,340.8	1,0%	10,488.4	0,7%	26,829.3	0,8%
28	Morocco	8,688.8	0,5%	15,167.7	1,0%	23,856.4	0,7%
29	Indonesia	16,149.5	1,0%	7,349.8	0,5%	23,499.4	0,7%
30	Egypt	9,510.7	0,6%	13,943.7	0,9%	23,454.4	0,7%
31	Tunisia	9,874.1	0,6%	10,930.9	0,7%	20,804.9	0,6%
32	Argentina	10,656.7	0,6%	8,320.0	0,5%	18,976.8	0,6%
33	Chile	10,869.7	0,6%	7,651.3	0,5%	18,521.0	0,6%
34	Qatar	13,321.4	0,8%	4,885.4	0,3%	18,206.8	0,6%
35	Vietnam	12,801.4	0,8%	5,209.3	0,3%	18,010.7	0,6%
36	Azerbaijan	14,841.9	0,9%	2,862.4	0,2%	17,704.3	0,6%
37	Croatia	5,604.2	0,3%	11,300.7	0,7%	16,904.9	0,5%
38	Iraq	9,469.6	0,6%	3,883.5	0,3%	13,353.1	0,4%
39	Serbia	4,716.0	0,3%	8,486.1	0,6%	13,202.1	0,4%
40	Libya	10,437.1	0,6%	2,066.1	0,1%	12,503.2	0,4%
41	Colombia	6,897.8	0,4%	4,986.1	0,3%	11,883.9	0,4%
42	Angola	6,651.3	0,4%	4,853.4	0,3%	11,504.7	0,4%
43	Belarus	4,220.2	0,3%	7,218.3	0,5%	11,438.5	0,4%
44	Bangladesh	8,585.4	0,5%	1,701.7	0,1%	10,287.1	0,3%
45	Peru	6,342.2	0,4%	2,808.6	0,2%	9,150.7	0,3%
46	Philippines	5,111.4	0,3%	3,978.8	0,3%	9,090.2	0,3%
47	Venezuela	4,086.4	0,2%	4,886.1	0,3%	8,972.5	0,3%
48	Kuwait	4,797.2	0,3%	3,706.7	0,2%	8,503.9	0,3%
49	Pakistan	4,569.3	0,3%	3,740.6	0,2%	8,310.0	0,3%
50	Gibraltar	217.5	0,0%	7,889.9	0,5%	8,107.4	0,3%

Trade with partner country groupings(2011)

Rank	Partner region	Imports (Millions Euro)	% (of total)	Exports (Millions Euro)	% (of total)	Total trade (Millions Euro)	% (of total)
-	Total EU	1,683,931.0	100%	1,531,122.0	100%	3,215,053.0	100%
-	ACP	86,277.8	5,1%	80,197.0	5,2%	166,474.8	5,2%
-	Andean Community	15,906.9	0,9%	9,652.0	0,6%	25,558.9	0,8%
-	ASEAN	93,203.4	5,5%	68,458.5	4,5%	161,661.9	5,0%
-	BRIC	567,257.6	33,7%	320,814.8	21,0%	888,072.4	27,6%
-	CACM	8,274.5	0,5%	4,335.2	0,3%	12,609.7	0,4%
-	EU Candidate Countries	55,324.2	3,3%	86,723.0	5,7%	142,047.2	4,4%
-	CIS	257,570.0	15,3%	152,602.0	10,0%	410,172.0	12,8%
-	EFTA	188,650.8	11,2%	171,141.9	11,2%	359,792.7	11,2%
-	Latin America Countries	106,354.4	6,3%	96,141.4	6,3%	202,495.9	6,3%
-	MEDA(Excl. EU and Turkey)	71,958.9	4,3%	85,634.8	5,6%	157,593.7	4,9%
-	Mercosur	50,950.8	3,0%	45,820.2	3,0%	96,771.0	3,0%
-	NAFTA	223,262.7	13,3%	313,976.6	20,5%	537,239.3	16,7%

Main trading partners 2007-2010
Main trade partners	2007			2008			2009			2010
Main trade partners	Exports(Millions Euro)	Imports(Millions Euro)	Total Trade(Millions Euro)	Exports	Imports	Total Trade	Exports	Imports	Total Trade	Exports	Imports	Total Trade
Total EU	1,240,556	1,435,0154	2,675,571	1,309,885	1,566,309	2,876,194	1,097,142	1,206,495	2,303,637	1,347,948	1,506,934	2,854,882
United States	259,178	174,114	433,292	250,124	186,777	436,901	205,538	159,212	364,750	242,173	170,111	412,284
China	71,785	232,624	304,409	78,417	247,933	326,350	82,426	214,092	296,518	113,251	282,508	395,759
Russia	89,067	144,980	234,047	105,028	178,144	283,172	65,614	117,741	183,355	86,133	158,553	244,686
Switzerland	92,610	76,641	169,251	98,006	80,330	178,366	88,558	73,842	162,400	105,375	84,307	189,682
Norway	43,457	76,578	120,035	43,767	95,931	139,388	37,528	68,895	106,423	41,881	79,229	121,110
Japan	43,622	78,392	122,014	42,267	75,074	117,341	36,037	56,738	92,775	43,852	65,766	109,618
Turkey	52,643	47,028	99,671	54,136	46,020	100,156	44,123	36,163	80,286	61,219	42,307	103,526
India	26,586	29,177	55,763	31,603	29,545	61,148	27,593	25,448	53,041	34,804	33,193	67,997
South Korea	24,708	41,338	66,046	25,568	39,572	65,140	21,637	32,298	53,935	27,944	39,079	67,023
Brazil	21,256	32,511	54,022	26,349	35,896	62,245	21,629	25,723	47,352	31,314	32,431	63,745
Canada	25,262	22,318	47,944	26,092	23,868	49,960	22,460	17,768	40,228	26,612	20,186	46,798
Singapore	20,456	18,393	38,939	22,059	16,166	38,225	20,430	14,633	35,063	24,370	18,707	43,077
South Africa	20,374	20,870	41,244	20,222	22,362	42,584	16,121	14,985	31,106	21,433	17,937	39,370
Saudi Arabia	19,898	18,609	38,507	21,293	22,042	43,335	11,678	19,565	31,243	23,129	16,180	39,309
Taiwan	13,319	26,031	39,350	11,596	24,076	35,672	10,030	17,855	27,885	14,772	24,156	38,928
Hong Kong	20,846	10,973	31,819	21,106	11,503	32,609	19,664	9,535	29,199	26,940	10,674	37,614
Australia	22,567	11,749	34,316	25,178	11,195	36,373	21,858	8,091	29,949	26,770	9,791	36,561
Algeria	11,244	20,584	31,828	15,363	28,259	43,622	14,777	17,411	32,188	15,534	20,916	36,450
Libya	4,155	27,404	31,559	5,751	35,265	41,013	6,313	20,882	27,195	6,709	28,806	35,515
Mexico	20,956	12,110	33,066	21,934	13,721	36,655	16,002	10,040	26,042	21,338	13,157	34,495

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Economy of The European Union - Trade

Famous quotes containing the word trade: