The UK’s EU.
Estatisticaextends its involvement in the EU as an important partner.
China joined the EU in 1997 as a third-largest trading partner for goods, following the United States and the United Kingdom.
In 2024, the EU exported goods worth €213.3 billion to China and imported €517.8 billion, resulting in a potential trade deficit of €304.5 billion (as reported by Eurostat).
This behavior led €304.5 billion to fall just 4.6% year-over-year, with trade surpluses only observed by three EU countries: Ireland, Luxembourg, and (presumably so, as the Dutch government reports).
The EU’s largest components of trade with China involved €311.3 billion in EU exports and €442 billion in EU imports, with the Netherlands and the Netherlands (€85 billion) being the two largest exporters and the three largest importers in the EU.
China accounted for 21.3% of the EU’s total trade surplus this year, while the United States held the second-largest trade surplus with China at 13.7%.
China continued to lead the EU as a major trade partner, closely following the United States (20.6%) and the United Kingdom (13.2%) in terms of imports. Against exports, the EU saw a decline of 4.5% in both 2024, reflecting a nuanced economic landscape with manufacturing exports growing by 47% while EU exports grew by 88%.
Out of EU’s largest manufacturing sectors, machinery and vehicles accounted for 51% of total exports, followed by other manufactured products (20%) and chemicals (17%).
Across manufacturing imports, the EU consumed 97% of its goods imports, with higher percentages still dominating imports as goods holdsof private households accounted for the remaining 3%.
Chinese manufacturing imports lagged behind, with 51% or more of EU manufacturing imports attributed to electrical machinery, appliances, and electrical parts, as well as telecommunications and audio equipment, and office machines and data-processing machines.
