Back Asia-Europe Meeting: EU trade deficit at €244 billion

24 November 2021

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On the 25 and 26 November 2021, Cambodia is hosting the 13th International Summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Phnom Penh. The summit brings together the 27 EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and 21 Asian partner countries to discuss a range of areas of common interest, including trade in goods.

These 21 Asian partner countries together accounted for 36% of EU total international trade in goods in 2020. More specifically, they were the destination of 27% of exports from the EU and the origin of 45% of EU imports. The deficit in trade in goods with these partners stood at €244 billion in 2020, which is below the deficit recorded in 2019 (€270 billion) and below the peak deficit of €275 billion reached in 2008.

Infographic: Top 5 ASEM trading partners with the EU

Source dataset: DS-018995

In terms of the share of EU-ASEM total trade in goods, the top five Asian trading partners with the EU in 2020 were China (45%), Russia (13%), Japan (8%), South Korea (7%) and India (5%). The share of China in the total has increased by 10 percentage points (pp) since 2010. In contrast, over the same period there have been declines in the shares of  Russia (-11 pp since 2010), Japan and India (both -1 pp).

For more information:

  • The 21 Asian partner countries are: Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
  • Statistics Explained article on international trade in goods
  • Overview of statistics on international trade in goods
  • Database of statistics on international trade in goods
  • International trade in goods - a statistical picture online publication

 

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