EU trade in goods with China: Less deficit in 2023

In 2023, the EU trade in goods deficit with China stood at €291 billion, which was €106 billion lower when compared with 2022 (-27%).

Between 2013 and 2023, the EU’s trade in goods deficit with China varied between €104 billion in 2013 and €397 billion in 2022, the highest value in the decade. 

In 2023, China was the largest partner for EU imports of goods (20.5% of total extra-EU imports) and was the third largest partner for EU exports of goods (8.8% of total extra-EU exports).

Source dataset: ext_st_eu27_2020sitc and DS-018995

When it comes to the most imported products from China, Telecommunications equipment was the first, although it went down from €63.1 billion in 2022 to €56.3 billion in 2023. Electrical machinery and apparatus (€36.5 billion) and Automatic data processing machines (€36 billion) were the second and third most imported goods respectively. 

Motor cars and motor vehicles registered the highest increase in imports (€3.5 billion; 36.7% more than in 2022), while organo-inorganic and related compounds, which are used as catalysts in chemical reactions, recorded the largest decrease (-€13 billion; 45.4% less than in 2022).

 Source dataset: DS-018995