Bilateral trade overview
While there has been a downward trend in the share of European exports in the world, the EU still remains the largest food exporter and second largest importer. The main destinations receiving its exports are the USA, Japan, Switzerland, Russia, Canada and Norway.
The European food industry is the worlds leading exporter of food products and has a positive trade balance. The most important destinations for exports are: USA, Japan, Switzerland, Russia, Canada and Norway.
As far as imports of Processed Agricultural Products are concerned USA, Switzerland, Ivory Coast, Bahamas, Malaysia and China are the most important suppliers.
In addition to its international commitments arising under WTO the EU has also entered into certain bilateral agreements concerning trade in Processed Agricultural Products.
Bilateral agreements (e.g. Free Trade Agreements, Economic partnerships, Association Agreements, Stabilisation and Association Agreements) are agreements between two political entities, thus legally binding these two territories only. Specific preferential regimes have been set up for Processed Agricultural Products within the framework of these bilateral agreements. It falls to the European Commission to implement these preferential trade regimes on the EU's behalf. DG Enterprise participates in all bilateral trade negotiations for Processed Agricultural Products, within a strict mandate defined by the Member States.
The following are examples of bilateral trade negotiations DG Enterprise participates in:
- Euro-Mediterranean
(Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Turkey) - Mercosur
(Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) - Gulf Co-operation Council
(Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arabian Emirates) - European Economic Area
(Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) - Switzerland
- Balkan countries
- Mexico
- Chile
Statistics
The EU is the world's largest exporter of food and drink products and the second largest importer. Nevertheless, its market share in the global export market has been shrinking over the past ten years to the benefit of Brazil and China. The EU is a net exporter of processed agricultural products (PAPs) with a positive trade balance of almost €13bn in 2009. During this year, exports and imports decreased by 2 and 5% respectively.
Exports
Taking 22% of all EU exports, the USA is number one export country of European food and drink industries followed by Switzerland with almost 7% in 2009. Russia, Norway, Japan, Canada, Turkey, Singapore, China and Australia are the next largest export destinations for the european PAPs.
Imports
On the imports side, Switzerland is the main importer of PAPs for EU27 with a share of 21% in 2009 followed by USA with a share of 12% respectively for the same year. Between 2008 and 2009 the imports from Brazil and Malaysia have decreased by 30 and 23% respectively. The imports from the other important trading partners have remained relatively stable for the same period.
The EU's food industry depends mainly on international trade negotiations, particularly those of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
