Archive:Impact of COVID-19 on international trade by Member State

PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION !!!

Data extracted in August 2020.

No planned update.

Highlights

tweet1

tweet2

To help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world have taken a variety of restrictive measures, which have negatively affected international trade in goods. This article is part of an online publication containing articles on the Impact of COVID-19 on international trade in goods statistics. In this article, we present the impact on different product groups. To ensure comparability over time we use seasonally and working-day adjusted data.

Full article

Comparison with the previous year

The product group showing the largest reduction compared to the same semester of the previous year is energy. However, the drop to 63 % of last year's values is due to a combination of the COVID-19 crisis and a fall in prices for important energy products such as crude oil. Chemicals (both exports and imports) and food & drink (only exports) grew during this period. They were also the two categories where exports grew more than imports. In the other product categories, the drops were much larger and affected imports more than exports.

Figure 1: Growth rates of extra EU-27 trade in goods by Member State (first semester 2019 - first semster 2020)
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_27_2020sitc)

File:Growth rates of extra EU-27 imports by Member State, January to June 2020 m-m.png

Figure 1: Growth rates of extra EU-27 imports by Member State (% change compared to same month previous year)
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_27_2020sitc)

File:Growth rates of extra EU-27 exports by Member State, January to June 2020 m-m.png

Figure 1: Growth rates of extra EU-27 exports by Member State (% change compared to same month previous year)
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_27_2020sitc)

Month to month comparison

File:Growth rates of extra EU-27 imports by Member State, January to June 2020 m-m.png

Figure 1: Growth rates of extra EU-27 imports by Member State (% change compared to the previous month)
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_27_2020sitc)

File:Growth rates of extra EU-27 exports by Member State, January to June 2020 m-m.png

Figure 1: Growth rates of extra EU-27 exports by Member State (% change compared to the previous month)
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_27_2020sitc)

Source data for tables and graphs

Download Excel file

Data sources

EU data is taken from Eurostat's COMEXT database. COMEXT is the reference database for international trade in goods. It provides access not only to both recent and historical data from the EU Member States but also to statistics of a significant number of third countries. International trade aggregated and detailed statistics disseminated via the Eurostat website are compiled from COMEXT data according to a monthly process.

Data are collected by the competent national authorities of the Member States and compiled according to a harmonised methodology established by EU regulations before transmission to Eurostat. For extra-EU trade, the statistical information is mainly provided by the traders on the basis of customs declarations.

EU data are compiled according to Community guidelines and may, therefore, differ from national data published by the Member States. Statistics on extra-EU trade are calculated as the sum of trade of each of the 27 EU Member States with countries outside the EU. In other words, the EU is considered as a single trading entity and trade flows are measured into and out of the area, but not within it.

The EU-27 data reflect the political change in the EU composition. Therefore, the United Kingdom is considered as an extra-EU partner country for the EU-27. However, the United Kingdom is still part of the internal market until the end of the transitory period, meaning that data on trade with the United Kingdom are still based on statistical concepts applicable to trade between the EU Member States. As a consequence, while imports from any other extra-EU-27 trade partner are grouped by country of origin, the United Kingdom data reflect country of consignment. In practice this means that the goods imported by the EU-27 from the United Kingdom were physically transported from the United Kingdom but part of these goods could have been of other origin than the United Kingdom. For this reason data on trade with the United Kingdom are not fully comparable with data on trade with other extra-EU-27 trade partners.

Methodology

In this article some products are classified as COVID-19 related products. They are compared over time and across countries, and also to products in the same chapter of the Harmonised System (HS) product classification, i.e. they are compared to other similar products that are however not directly used in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It should be noted that most COVID-19 related products cannot be precisely identified and they are grouped together with products not specific to COVID-19. Nevertheless, some trends can be observed.

According to the EU concepts and definitions, extra-EU trade statistics (trade between EU Member States and non-EU countries) do not record exchanges involving goods in transit, placed in a customs warehouse or given temporary admission (for trade fairs, temporary exhibitions, tests, etc.). This is known as ‘special trade’. The partner is the country of final destination of the goods for exports and the country of origin for imports.

Unit of measure

Trade values are expressed in millions or billions (10⁹) of euros. They correspond to the statistical value, i.e. to the amount which would be invoiced in the event of sale or purchase at the national border of the reporting country. It is called a FOB value (free on board) for exports and a CIF value (cost, insurance, freight) for imports.

Context

Trade is an important indicator of Europe’s prosperity and place in the world. The bloc is deeply integrated into global markets both for the products it sources and the exports it sells. The EU trade policy is an important element of the external dimension of the ‘Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’ and is one of the main pillars of the EU’s relations with the rest of the world.

Because the 27 EU Member States share a single market and a single external border, they also have a single trade policy. EU Member States speak and negotiate collectively, both in the World Trade Organization, where the rules of international trade are agreed and enforced, and with individual trading partners. This common policy enables them to speak with one voice in trade negotiations, maximising their impact in such negotiations. This is even more important in a globalised world in which economies tend to cluster together in regional groups.

The openness of the EU’s trade regime has meant that the EU is the biggest player on the global trading scene and remains a good region to do business with. Thanks to the ease of modern transport and communications, it is now easier to produce, buy and sell goods around the world which gives European companies of every size the potential to trade outside Europe.