Data extracted in September 2025
Planned update: September 2026
Highlights
Sold production of high-tech products increased from €273 billion in 2014 to €414 billion in 2024.
In 2024, high-tech products represented 20% of total extra-EU imports and 19% of total extra-EU exports.
In 2024, China was the EU's main partner for high-tech imports and the United States for high-tech exports.
The extra-EU trade balance in high-tech products went from a deficit of €15 billion in 2023 to a surplus of €23 billion in 2024
This article focuses on the trade and production of products identified as being of high-technology. High-tech products are divided into 9 groups according to the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC - Rev. 4): Aerospace, computers and office machines, electronics-telecommunications, pharmacy, scientific instruments, electrical machinery, chemistry, non-electrical machinery and armament.
This article is part of an online publication providing recent statistics on international trade in goods, covering information on the EU's main partners, main products traded, specific characteristics of trade as well as background information.
Main findings
International trade in high-tech products has increased in the last decade. Several studies show that both imports and exports of high-tech products have a positive effect on competitiveness. High-tech products also play an important role in the European Commission's policy goals of 'Environment and climate', 'Our digital future' and 'Jobs and economy'. Regarding the extra-EU trade of high-tech products, the main conclusions of this article are:
- Total extra-EU trade in high-tech products grew between 2014 and 2024 with annual average increase of 6.6%.
- The share of high-tech products in total extra-EU trade increased from 15.1% in 2014 to 19.5% in 2024.
- China was the main partner for imports of high-tech products into the EU.
- The United States was the main partner for exports of high-tech products from the EU.
- Sold production of high-tech products increased from €273 billion in 2014 to €414 billion in 2024.
EU trade in high-tech products
Between 2014 and 2024, total extra-EU trade (imports + exports) in high-tech products increased from €516 billion to €979 billion, equivalent to an annual average increase of 6.6%. Imports grew from €249 billion to €478 billion, equivalent to an annual average increase of 6.7% while exports grew from €267 billion to €501 billion, equivalent to an annual average increase of 6.5%. Consequently the trade surplus grew from €17 billion in 2014 to €23 billion in 2024 (see Figure 1).
The share of high-tech products in total (imports + exports) extra-EU trade increased from 15.1% in 2014 to 19.5% in 2024. Between 2014 and 2024, with the exception of 2022, the share was higher for imports than for exports. In 2024, the share for imports was 19.6% and for exports it was 19.4% (see Figure 2).
EU imports of high-tech products
In 2024 more than half of the EU imports of high-tech products from non-EU countries came from China (30%) and the United States (23%) combined, as shown in Figure 3. Among the top 6 partners, between 2014 and 2024, imports from China increased the most in absolute terms, from €79 billion to €141 billion, while Taiwan (13%) had the highest average annual growth rate.
Figure 4 shows the top 20 partners (in 2024) from which the EU imported high-tech products. The first 12 partners accounted for 90% of the total imports. Combined, the top 20 accounted for 96% of total imports.
In 2024, the largest category in EU imports of high-tech products was electronics-telecommunications with €171 billion (Figure 5). The categories with the highest average annual growth rate between 2014 and 2024 were pharmacy (10%) and armament (25%).
In 2024, for 3 (China, Taiwan and Vietnam) of the 6 top partners, the largest category in EU imports of high-tech products was electronics-telecommunications (Figure 6); for Switzerland it was pharmacy and for both the United States and the United Kingdom it was aerospace. The United States was the top partner in scientific instruments, pharmacy, aerospace, non-electrical machinery and armament. For electronics-telecommunications, computers and office machines and electrical machinery the largest partner was China while for chemistry it was the United Kingdom.
Between 2014 and 2024 high-tech imports increased most from China (€63 billion) and the United States (€60 billion) - see Table 1. The main contributing category to the increase of imports from China was electronics-telecommunications €39 billion. The main contributing categories to the increase of imports from the United States were pharmacy (€24 billion) and aerospace (€21 billion).
Source: Eurostat (ds-059331)
EU exports of high-tech products
In 2024 almost a third of the EU exports of high-tech products to non-EU countries went to the United States (31%) followed at some distance by China and the United Kingdom (both 10%). Among the top 6 partners, exports to the United States increased the most in absolute terms, from €51 billion to €156 billion. With 11.8% the United States also had the highest average annual growth rate in this period (Figure 7).
Figure 8 shows the top 20 partners to which the EU exported high-tech products in 2024. The top 20 export destinations accounted for 85% of total exports.
In 2024, the largest category in the exports of high-tech products was pharmacy with €166 billion (Figure 9). This was also the category with the highest average annual growth rate (12.8%) between 2014 and 2024, followed by armament (12.5%). The lowest growth rate was seen in non-electrical machinery (1.2%), while the other categories grew between 2.9% and 6.6%.
In 2024, for the United States, Switzerland and Japan, the largest category in EU exports of high-tech products was pharmacy (Figure 10). For China it was electronics-telecommunication and for Türkiye and the United Kingdom it was aerospace. In all but two categories the United States was the largest export destination for EU exports. China was the top partner in electronics-telecommunications and the United Kingdom in computers and office machines.
Between 2014 and 2024, the largest increases in high-tech exports were to the United States (€105 billion), China (€23 billion) and Switzerland (€14 billion) as shown in Table 2. The main contributing category to the increase of exports to the United States and Switzerland was pharmacy with €70 billion and €9 billion respectively. The main contributing category to the increase of exports to China was electronics-telecommunications with €9 billion.
Source: Eurostat (ds-059331)
EU trade balance in high-tech products
The EU had a large trade deficit with China (€92 billion) in 2024 (Figure 11). The only other partners with a trade deficit exceeding €10 billion were Taiwan (€19 billion) and Vietnam (€20 billion). The EU had a trade surplus above €10 billion with Türkiye (€11 billion), the United Kingdom (€27 billion) and the United States (€46 billion).
The trade deficit with China in 2023 is largely due to deficits in computers and office machines (€43 billion) and electronics-telecommunications (€60 billion) as shown in Table 3. The surplus with the United Kingdom was spread over several categories. With the United States there is a large deficit in aerospace (€17 billion) but an even greater surplus in pharmacy (€50 billion).
Source: Eurostat (ds-059331)
Manufacturing of high-tech products
In 2023 the EU had an estimated number of 42 043 enterprises in the high-tech manufacturing sector (Table 4), which represents 0.1% of the total number of enterprises in the EU. High-tech manufacturers were most numerous in Germany (8 896), Italy (5 156) and Poland (3 929). They had the highest number of persons employed in Germany (668 144), France (388 613) and Italy (212 256).
Relative to the total business population, the share for high-tech manufacturers was highest in Czechia, Slovakia and Germany (all 0.3%). Relative to the number of persons employed in the total business population, the share for high-tech manufacturers was highest in Slovenia (2.5%), Denmark (2.4%), Ireland and Hungary (both 2.2%).
Sold production of high-tech products
Sold production of high-tech products increased from €273 billion in 2014 to €414 billion in 2024. This was equivalent to an average annual increase of 4.3% (Figure 12).
Figure 13 shows the development over time of high-tech sold production by group. Between 2014 and 2024, sold production of high tech pharmaceutical products grew most in absolute terms from €51 billion to €120 billion, equivalent to an annual average growth of 9.0% (Figure 13). Sold production decreased in chemistry and aerospace.
Source: Eurostat (ds-056120)
In 2024, there were 3 categories with a share above 10% in total sold production of high-tech products (Figure 14). These were pharmacy (29%), electronics-telecommunications (23%) and scientific instruments (21%).
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
Multiple data sources
High-tech statistics uses various other domains and sources mainly within Eurostat's official statistics:
- International trade in goods statistics (COMEXT);
- Statistics on the production of manufactured goods (PRODCOM);
- Community innovation survey (CIS);
- Human resources in science and technology (HRST);
- Labour force survey (LFS);
- Structural business statistics (SBS);
- Research and development (R & D);
- Structure of earnings survey (SES);
- Patent database (PATSTAT).
The coverage and availability of high-tech statistics are then dependent on these other primary sources.
Trade in high-tech products
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 non-EU 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 EU Member States and compiled according to a harmonised methodology established by EU regulations before transmission to Eurostat. For 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 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 United Kingdom is considered as a partner country for the EU for the whole period covered by this article. However, the United Kingdom was still part of the internal market until the end of the transitory period (31 December 2020), meaning that data on trade with the United Kingdom are still based on statistical concepts applicable to trade between the EU Member States. Consequently, while imports from any other trade partner are grouped by country of origin, the United Kingdom data reflect the country of consignment. In practice this means that the goods imported by the EU 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 trade partners.
The product approach is used for data on high-tech trade. The product list is based on the calculations of R & D intensity by groups of products (R & D expenditure/total sales). The groups classified as high-technology products are aggregated on the basis of the Standard international trade classification (SITC). Due to the revision of SITC from SITC Rev. 3 to SITC Rev. 4, the definition of high-tech products also changed in 2011. The data in this article use the high-tech aggregation by SITC Rev. 4. This list, based on the OECD definition, contains technical products of which the manufacturing involved a high intensity of R & D.
Production of high-tech products
Industrial production data comes from PRODCOM. Prodcom provides statistics on the production of manufactured goods. The Prodcom data includes:
- the physical volume of production sold during the survey period;
- the value of production sold during the survey period;
- for some products, the volume of total production during the survey period.
The Prodcom data is obtained by the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) that conduct a survey of enterprises. Eurostat calculates EU totals at EU-27 level from the national data.
Data limitations
List of the COMEXT products without correspondence in PRODCOM:
| 2844 10 10 | 2844 30 51 | 8523 49 25 | 8523 51 99 |
| 2844 10 30 | 2844 30 55 | 8523 49 31 | 8710 00 00 |
| 2844 10 50 | 2844 30 61 | 8523 49 39 | 9301 10 00 |
| 2844 10 90 | 2844 30 69 | 8523 49 45 | 9301 20 00 |
| 2844 20 25 | 2844 30 91 | 8523 49 51 | 9301 90 00 |
| 2844 20 35 | 2844 30 99 | 8523 49 59 | 9305 91 00 |
| 2844 20 51 | 2844 40 10 | 8523 49 91 | 9306 30 30 |
| 2844 20 59 | 2844 40 20 | 8523 49 93 | 9306 90 10 |
| 2844 20 99 | 2844 40 30 | 8523 49 99 | |
| 2844 30 11 | 2844 40 80 | 8523 51 91 | |
| 2844 30 19 | 2844 50 00 | 8523 51 93 |
Labels for these codes can be found in the following Regulations:
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1101/2014 of 16 October 2014
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1602 of 11 October 2018
Context
In the context of economic globalisation, technology is a key factor in enhancing growth and competitiveness in business. High-tech industries are expanding most strongly in international trade and their dynamism helps to improve performance in other sectors. Investment in research, development, innovation and skills constitutes a key policy area for the EU as it is essential to economic growth and to the development of a knowledge-based economy.
Certain WTO Members including the EU have joined the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) which provides duty free access to high-tech products, including computers, telephones and inputs and components such as semiconductors. The new, expanded ITA agreement concluded recently will reduce the costs for consumers and for manufacturing IT products in Europe. It will offer new market access for many of Europe's high-tech companies – some of which are leaders in their fields – and encourage innovation by simplifying access to state-of-the-art technology. As such, it will contribute to the further development of the digital economy in the EU.