Data extracted in March 2026
Planned article updates: March 2027
Highlights
This article discusses the development of the European Union's (EU) international trade in goods. It considers the EU's share in world import and export markets, intra-EU trade (trade between EU countries), the EU's main trading partners, and the EU's most widely traded product categories.
The EU accounts for around 14% of the world's trade in goods. The value of international trade in goods significantly exceeds that of services (by about three times), reflecting the nature of some services which makes them harder to trade across borders.
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.
EU imports and exports increased in 2025
In 2025, the EU trade in goods balance registered a surplus of €130 billion. This marks a great contrast to 2022 when the EU reported a deficit of €434 billion due to the high value of energy imports resulting from high energy prices. Compared to 2024, the surplus dropped by €10 billion.
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_intratrd)
The yearly growth of imports and exports is given in Figure 2. In 2025, imports increased by 2.4% and exports increased by 1.9%. In 2020, EU trade was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a significant fall observed for both exports (-9.4%) and imports (-11.6%) (see Figure 1). However, both recovered strongly in 2021 and 2022. In 2023 compared with 2022, exports remained stable but imports declined by 16,1%, mainly due to falling prices of energy. In 2024, imports (-2.8%) fell while exports (+1.2%) rose slightly.
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_intratrd)
Among the EU countries, Germany had by far the highest share of extra-EU trade in 2025, contributing 26.1% of the EU's exports of goods to non-EU member countries and accounting for almost one-fifth (18.8%) of the EU's imports (see Figure 3). The next 3 largest exporters, Italy (11.8%), France (10.6%) and the Netherlands (10.3%) were the only other EU countries with a double-digit share of EU exports. The Netherlands (17.7%), France (10.4%) and Italy (10.2%) followed Germany as the largest importers of goods from non-member countries in 2025. The relatively high share for the Netherlands can, at least in part, be explained by the considerable amount of goods that flow into the EU through Rotterdam, which is the EU's leading sea port, the so called Rotterdam effect.
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_intratrd)
The largest extra-EU trade surplus in goods, valued at €216.1 billion in 2025, was recorded by Germany, followed by Ireland (€89.8 billion) and Italy (€56.2 billion). The largest trade deficits for extra-EU trade in goods were recorded by the Netherlands (€173.7 billion), Spain (€48.1 billion) and Poland (€27.4 billion) as shown in Table B in the excel file attached below.
Trade in goods between EU countries (intra-EU trade) was valued – in terms of exports – at €4 025 billion in 2025. This was 56% higher than the level recorded for exports leaving the EU to non-EU member countries of €2 584 billion (extra-EU trade).
As with extra-EU trade, Germany was also the EU country with the highest level of intra-EU trade in 2025, contributing 21.1% of the EU's exports of goods to other EU countries and 22.0% of the EU's imports of goods from other EU countries (see Figure 4). The Netherlands (14.6%) was the only other EU country to contribute more than one tenth of intra-EU exports, again a consequence of the Rotterdam effect, while France (10.8%) was the only other EU country to account for more than one tenth of intra-EU imports.
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_intratrd)
The significance of the EU's internal market is underlined by the fact that intra-EU trade in goods (exports and imports combined) was higher than extra-EU trade (exports and imports combined) for all EU countries, except Ireland, Slovenia and Cyprus (see Figure 5). The proportion of total trade in goods that was accounted for by intra-EU and extra-EU flows varied considerably across countries, reflecting to some degree historical ties and geographical location. In 2025, the highest shares of intra-EU trade (above 75% of total trade) were recorded for Czechia (75.7%), Latvia (77.4%), Estonia (78.9%), Slovakia (79.5%) and Luxembourg (85.1%) while the lowest ratios were found in Cyprus (48.6%), Slovenia (45.4%) and Ireland (36.4%).
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_intratrd)
This finding is confirmed in Figure 6, which shows most EU countries' exports as well as imports are with other EU countries. Only 4 EU countries recorded shares below 50% for intra EU flows. In particular, Ireland and Slovenia, due to their proximity to the United Kingdom and Switzerland registered intra EU shares below 50% for both imports and exports. The Netherlands acts as an entry hub for the EU, with extra-EU imports playing a major role, while Cyprus functions as an exit hub, partly due to its geographical proximity to the Middle East area.
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_intratrd)
United States largest partner for exports, China for imports
The United States remained the largest destination for goods exported from the EU in 2025 (see Figure 7) with a share of 21.0%. The United Kingdom came second (13.1% of the EU total), followed by Switzerland (8.3%). China was the largest supplier of goods into the EU in 2025 with a share of 22.3%. The United States (14.1%) followed at some distance.
Between 2024 and 2025, among the main trading partners, the highest annual growth rate was recorded for exports to Switzerland (13.5%) and the United States (3.6%) while exports to China (-6.5%) and Japan (-2.5%) dropped most (see Figure 7).
On the import side, between 2024 and 2025, imports of goods dropped most from Brazil (-3.8%) and the United Kingdom (-3.4%). The largest increases for imports were recorded for Mexico (+15.9%) and Canada (+17.1%). China and the United States registered increases of 6.4% and 5.2%, respectively.
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_maineu)
Large trade surplus for machinery and vehicles and chemicals
In 2025, the EU trade in goods balance registered a surplus of €130 billion (see Figure 8). Between 2015 and 2025, the EU recorded a trade surplus every year except for 2022, when high energy prices led to a significant deficit. In all other years, surpluses in machinery, vehicles, and chemicals outweighed the deficits caused by energy prices. The chemicals and related products group registered the largest increase in the last decade, doubling the surplus observed in 2015 from €128.7 billion to €257.4 billion. In contrast, other manufactured goods switched from a surplus of €11.9 billion in 2015 to a deficit of €37.6 billion in 2025. The deficit for energy increased from €226.2 billion in 2015 to €298.8 billion in 2025. Fluctuating prices have a large influence on this deficit which was lowest in 2020 at €157.3 billion and highest in 2022 at €650.5 billion.
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_intertrd)
The shares by product group of the EU's exports of goods did not change much between 2024 and 2025 (see Figure 9). There was an increase of 1.2 percentage points (pp) for chemicals and related products and a decrease for energy of 0.6 pp.
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_intertrd)
For the shares by product of the EU's imports, there was a decrease for the share of energy (-2.7 pp) between 2024 and 2025 (see Figure 10). By contrast, over the same period the share of almost all other products group increased, most notably for machinery & vehicles (+1.1 pp).
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_intertrd)
Figure 11 compares the structure of the EU's imports with exports in 2025. It should be noted that the overall level of exports was 5.2% higher than the level of imports. The most notable difference is in the share of energy which was 4 times as high for imports as for exports. This was balanced by lower import than export shares for machinery and vehicles and chemicals and related products.
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_intertrd)
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
Statistics on the international trade of goods measure the value and quantity of goods traded between EU Member States (known as intra-EU trade) and goods traded by Member States with non-EU member countries (known as extra-EU trade). These statistics are the official source of information on imports, exports and the trade balance in the EU, its Member States and the euro area.
Statistics are published for each declaring country with respect to each partner country, for several product classifications. One of the most commonly used product classifications is the standard international trade classification (SITC Rev. 4) of the United Nations (UN); this allows a comparison of international trade statistics to be made on a worldwide basis.
In extra-EU trade statistics, the data shown for the EU treat this entity as a single trading block. In other words, the data for exports relate only to those exports from the EU that leave the trading block and are destined for the rest of the world, while extra-EU imports relate to imports from the rest of the world (non-EU member countries) coming into the EU. By contrast, when reporting data for individual EU Member States, international trade flows are generally presented in terms of world trade flows (including both intra-EU and extra-EU partners). Statistics on trade between the EU Member States (intra-EU trade) cover imports and exports of goods recorded by each Member State.
The statistical values of extra- and intra-EU trade are recorded at their free-on-board (FOB) value for exports and their cost, insurance and freight (CIF) value for imports. The values reported comprise only those subsidiary costs (freight and insurance) which relate, for exports, to the journey within the territory of the EU Member State from which the goods are exported and, for imports, to the journey outside the territory of the Member State into which the goods are imported.
EU data come from Eurostat's COMEXT database, 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 for a significant number of non-EU member countries. Aggregated and detailed statistics for international trade in goods as disseminated through Eurostat's website are compiled from COMEXT each month. As COMEXT is updated on a daily basis, data published on the website may differ from the data found in COMEXT (in case of recent revisions).
Data for the non-EU major traders used in Figures 14 to 18 are taken from the UNCTAD database of the United Nations. For the calculation of shares the world trade is defined as the sum of EU trade with non-EU countries (source: Eurostat) plus the international trade of non-EU countries (source: UNCTAD).
Context
Statistics on the international trade of goods are used extensively by decision makers at an international, EU and national level. Businesses may use international trade data to carry out market research and define their commercial strategy. Statistics for international trade in goods are also used by EU institutions in their preparation of multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations, for defining and implementing anti-dumping policies, for the purposes of macroeconomic and monetary policies, and in evaluating the progress of the single market, or the integration of European economies.
The development of trade can be an opportunity for economic growth. The EU has a common trade policy, whereby the European Commission negotiates trade agreements and represents the EU's interests on behalf of its 27 Member States. The European Commission consults EU Member States through an advisory committee which discusses the full range of trade policy issues affecting the EU including multilateral, bilateral and unilateral instruments. As such, trade policy is an exclusive power of the EU — so only the EU, and not individual EU Member States, can legislate on trade matters and conclude international trade agreements. More recently, this scope has been extended beyond trade in goods, to cover trade in services, intellectual property and foreign direct investment (in chapter 4).
Globally, multilateral trade issues are dealt with under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The WTO has 166 members (as of August 2024), with several candidate members in the process of joining. The WTO sets the global rules for trade, provides a forum for trade negotiations, and for settling disputes between members. The European Commission negotiates with its WTO partners and participated in the latest round of WTO multilateral trade negotiations, known as the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).