International trade of the European Union in 2007 - Issue number 92/2008 - Products Statistics in Focus

The European Union continues to be the most important exporter at world level and the second importer, just behind the United States. Goods with a total value of EUR 1 240 billion were dispatched outside the EU-27, against imported products worth EUR 1 425 billion. Accordingly, the European Union's trade balance was in deficit by EUR 185 billion, slightly reduced compared to a year earlier (EUR 193 billion) but substantially more than in 2005, when the deficit amounted to EUR 127 billion. The main factor that made the deficit grow compared to the latter year is the value of energy imports. However, the price tag for imported energy products in 2007 was slightly lower than in 2006 (EUR 332 billion against EUR 340 billion respectively). The United States remained the main trading partner of the EU. In 2007, the trade volume (value of imports and exports) amounted to EUR 443 billion, a value similar to that of 2006. China and Russia followed with volumes of EUR 303 billion and EUR 233 billion respect-tively. Since 2000, EU-27 exports to Russia and Ukraine increased particularly rapidly (+22% per year on average). For imports, the highest average annual growth rate was registered for China (+18% per year). Among the main products traded in 2007, ‘road vehicles' came first in exports (total value of EUR 119 billion) whereas it was ‘petroleum and petroleum products' for imports (EUR 253 billion).