EU Foreign Trade

Main article: Economy of the European Union

Directions of trade

Trade with Russia

Main article: Trade between Russia and the EU

Trade with China

Main article: China-EU trade

Import of gas, coal, oil and petroleum products

Main article: Import of gas, coal, oil and petroleum products in Europe

2026

Trade agreement with India

India's agreement with the EU, signed in January 2026, provides for a reduction in tariffs on most industrial and consumer goods, expanded EU access to the Indian car market (with restrictions), but almost does not affect agriculture. Formal signing is expected after legal verification and ratification by the European Parliament.

For India, the deal could give an export advantage and boost EU shipments by about $50 billion by 2031, especially in pharmaceuticals, textiles and chemistry.

The EU, in turn, gets access to one of the fastest growing markets in the world with a population of 1.4 billion people.

The agreement is expected to double EU exports to India by 2032.

Tariffs are expected to be cut by 96.6 per cent on goods exported from the EU to India.

Reducing tariffs will save about 4 billion euros per year on duties on European products.

EU service providers will be able to enjoy privileged access to the Indian market in key areas such as financial and maritime services.

Car duties will be gradually reduced from 110% to 10%.

Removal of high duties India on wines - from 150% to 20%, olive oil - from 45% to 0% in 5 years, bread and confectionery - cancellation of duties up to 50%.

The EU expects to provide 500 million euros in support over the next two years to assist India in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In parallel, the parties are strengthening cooperation in the field of security and defense, which reflects India's gradual geopolitical turn towards the West.

EU-Mercosur trade deal rejected by European Parliament

The signing of the EU-Mercado Común del Sur agreement in January 2026 was supposed to mark the end of a long period of diplomatic struggle. One of the largest free trade zones with coverage of more than 700 million consumers and representing about a quarter of global GDP was to be created.

The agreement provided for the phased elimination of customs duties on the vast majority of goods. The EU cancels tariffs on 92% of imports from Mercosur, and they, in turn, are obliged to reduce duties on 91% of goods from Europe.

According to various estimates for the EU, the deal would provide 0.1% GDP growth over the decade, but in monetary terms - this is tens of billion euros and annual savings of €4 billion only on the abolition of duties. For Mercosur - 0.3% of GDP growth.

European countries win the most in the industrial sectors. Plus, access to strategic raw materials - lithium and other rare earth metals, which are so necessary for the production of electric vehicles, should have been opened.

Mercosur is trying to realize its advantage in agriculture and raw material extraction, as well as get modern European technologies and investments.

Both sides benefit significantly from the deal amid ongoing trade wars being waged by the US. Moreover, diversification of trade would reduce dependence on key geopolitical players - the United States and China.

The most important thing for the EU is access to critical mineral resources. Mercosur controls part of the "lithium triangle" (Argentina, Chile, Bolivia), where 75% of the world's known lithium reserves are concentrated.

Farmers regularly protested in Europe, and the main opponents of the deal, especially, blocked the progress of France the agreement in every possible way, which irritated the members of Mercosur, for example. Brazil

The French government is most actively opposed to the trade agreement. Initially, he was supported by the authorities of Poland, Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland.

French farmers and agrolobbies have pressed the Macron administration, arguing that the deal would "drown" them with cheap meat, sugar and chicken from Mercosur, produced according to milder sanitary and environmental standards.

Added to this were the protests of environmentalists, the frequent change of governments in the countries of Mercosur, as well as the economic crisis in Argentina.

In the EU, the vote to approve the deal has consistently failed. At the last moment, the authorities who changed their minds Italy seemed to shift the balance of power in favor of the agreement.

The United States has not officially responded to the deal. It is understandable - such an agreement clearly does not fit into the updated Monroe doctrine and Trump's strategic plans to master the Western Hemisphere.

As a result, a few days later, the European Parliament voted against ratifying the trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur. Results: 334-324 in favor of opponents of the deal.

On top of that, a group of MPs sent a text to an EU court to test legitimacy. The European Commission received an order to refrain from applying the agreement for 18-24 months.

The EC could use a temporary application mechanism so that the agreement began to operate immediately without ratification. But, as a rule, such a procedure is resorted to in exceptional cases for political reasons.

2025: Agreement with the United States to impose 15% tariffs on EU products

In July 2025, ahead of the 50% tariffs coming into force, the US and EU agreed on 15% tariffs on most European exports, including cars and pharmaceuticals. The deal prevents escalation, but creates a clear bias: EU suppliers will be subject to higher duties than from the United States.

US President Donald Trump called it "the largest of all transactions," and Ursula von der Leyen - "the best possible option." The EU agreed in return:

• invest $600 billion in the US economy,
• purchase American energy resources for $750 billion,
• open access to their markets at zero duties,
• increase purchases of American military equipment.

EU steel and aluminium exports are still subject to 50% tariffs, whereas aerospace is subject to zero tariffs. Brussels hopes to ease conditions as part of further negotiations and achieve partial quotas.

Within the EU, however, the deal is controversial. The German industrial lobby called it a "fatal signal," and critics called it "asymmetric concessions" under pressure from Washington.

2024

4th in terms of fertilizer exports in the world - $6.6 billion

The volume of global fertilizer exports in 2024 reached $60.91 billion. This is evidenced by the data of the national statistics services and the UN platform Comtrade, with which TAdviser got acquainted in May 2025. TAdviser has prepared an infographic with the world's largest fertilizer exporting countries. Read more here.

Lagging behind China in goods trade

Surplus in trade in goods with the United States $236 billion and $148 billion, including services

In 2024, EU exports to the United States grew by 5.6%, reaching €532 billion ($576 billion).

Exports to the US increased by 38% between 2019 and 2024, more than double the growth rate of EU exports to the rest of the world (17%).

Trade US-EU goods in 2024: exports dollars worth 370 billion, imports worth $606 billion, US deficit worth $236 billion.

The trade balance of trade in US goods with major partners for 2023-2024 is presented below.

Trade surplus for 9 months 118 billion euros. The main trading partners are the USA, Britain and China

The Eurozone countries managed to increase the trade surplus to 118.7 billion euros in 9 months of 2024 with countries outside the YeS-27, which is close to the pre-crisis indicators for 9m19 - 127.7 billion at the expense, while for 9m22 there was a record deficit in history of 362 billion euros (hereinafter all indicators in euros).

The most important trading partner outside the YeS-27 for the Eurozone is:

• USA: exports - 395.9 billion euros, imports - 250.5 billion, balance + 145 billion
• Britain: exports - 255.4 billion, imports - 123.2 billion, balance + 132.2 billion
• China: exports - 162.3 billion, imports - 379.2 billion, balance sheet -216.9 billion
• Switzerland: exports - 144.9 billion, imports - 98.3 billion, balance + 46.6 billion
• Japan: exports - 48.7 billion, imports - 47.7 billion, balance + 1 billion
• Norway: exports - 47.1 billion, imports - 73 billion, balance sheet - 25.9 billion
• Mexico: exports - 40.8 billion, imports - 21.6 billion, balance + 19.2 billion
• South Korea: exports - 40.3 billion, imports - 50.5 billion, balance sheet - 10.3 billion.

Compared to 2019 (9m24 to 9m19), the trade balance has improved the most:

• Russia: A 44 billion surplus improvement, with direct exports to Russia falling 62% in 5 years and imports from Russia crashing more than 4 times - by 76%. Russia's share in Eurozone exports outside the YeS-27 countries is only 1.3% vs 4.1% in 2021 and 4% in 2019, although part of the supply goes on parallel imports through third countries, but not more than 0.4% of exports. The export flows that went to Russia were reoriented to solvent markets and exports eventually grew, energy supplies were replaced at the expense of the United States, Africa and the Middle East, on much less favorable terms.

• Britain: + 34.8 billion
• USA: + 32.1 billion
• Turkey: + 12.8 billion
• Mexico: + 9.6 billion

• Ukraine: + 8.8 billion, where exports to Ukraine grew by 71.3% over 5 years, overtaking supplies to Russia by 25% (30.4 billion to Ukraine vs 24.3 billion to Russia), and imports from Ukraine increased by 27% during large-scale hostilities, i.e. the Ukrainian economy works and supplies products to Europe.

The largest degradation of the trade balance in 5 years (9m24 to 9m19) is observed in the following countries:

• China: 92.9 billion trade deficit increase, where exports rose 12% and imports from China increased 41%
• Norway: 24.4 billion
• India: 13.6 billion
• Vietnam: 13.4 billion
• Algeria: 12 billion

In general, trade in Europe has returned to normal, despite large-scale and most significant structural changes in the modern history of the Eurozone, both in goods and in supply regions.

Record exports to Georgia

2023

China outperforms the EU in terms of exports to developing regions with the exception of Central Asia

Sharp increase in exports of expensive cars to Belarus after the imposition of sanctions against Russia

Slight reduction in trade with the United States

EU ports help resell more than 20% of LNG imported by EU from Russia

EU ports help resell more than 20% of LNG imported by the EU from Russia, the FT wrote in November 2023.

Although contracts for the so-called Russian LNG transshipment were banned Britain in and, data obtained in Netherlands 2023 suggests that authorized consignments of Russian gas are regularly reloaded from one tanker to another in, and Belgium France Spain before heading to customers on other continents.

The eurozone is the leader of the global trade downturn

As of October 2023, the Eurozone is the leader of the global trade downturn.

According to Tradeshift, a cloud-based supply chain management platform, "global trade, once referred to as the eurozone's bargaining chip, is now its Achilles heel as a worsening macroeconomic situation leaves order portfolios across the bloc extremely empty."

Recovery of foreign trade surplus

The YeS-27 's trade balance improved significantly, coming out of a record deficit in 2022 to its highest since November 2020 surplus in March 2023, close to an all-time high. The largest EU trade deficit with the outside world was in August 2022 - 66 billion euros.

The trade deficit began to accumulate from August 2021, when energy prices rose sharply, especially on gas. The escalation of the trade imbalance took place exactly one year until August 2022, during which time the accumulated trade deficit amounted to 350 billion euros. From September 2022, rapid improvement began against the background of a collapse in prices for the energy group.

In February 2023, for the first time since July 2021, they entered a surplus of 2.8 billion euros, and in March they recorded a surplus of 24.7 billion euros - this is a lot, because at the best of times the surplus was 28-29 billion euros, and the average monthly surplus for 12 months reached $25 billion in July 2016 and December 2020 in low energy prices.

Rising raw material prices have cost countries dearly. Europe From the best moment in May 2021 (228 billion euros of trade surplus for 12 months) went into a deficit of 433 billion by November 2022, i.e. a gap of 661 billion euros!

Now the situation is improving through a sharp reduction in imports while keeping high exports.

Since September 2022, imports have decreased by 22% or 61.9 billion euros per month, and in the structure of the reduction, the energy group accounted for 38.5 billion or 62% and another 3 billion for other types of raw materials, i.e. 67% is a raw material group.

Exports, by contrast, have set an all-time high, up 4.3% since September, with export improvements occurring across the commodity group, where the biggest effect is in the knowledge-intensive group (medical products, cars, mechanical engineering products, transport and electrical equipment).

Inflation, partially provoked by the dispersal of prices for the commodity group, contributed to the rise in prices for industrial goods, and this, in turn, made it possible to sharply improve the trade balance - raw materials fell in price, and industrial goods continue to inflate, Spydell Finance noted.

3 in the world in terms of wheat exports

Eurozone's record trade deficit at the start of the year

The trade balances of the Eurozone and Japan have sharply gone into the red. Data for February 2023

Energy crisis leads to EU trade deficit of 506 billion euros in 18 months

For the first time since July 2021, EU countries entered a surplus in the trade balance to trade with countries outside the EU - while the symbolic 4.8 billion euros per month for February 2023 compared to the norm of 20 billion.

From August 2021 to January 2023 (18 months) there was a continuous deficit with a cumulative total of 506 billion, while if it were not for the energy crisis, taking into account the seasonal norm, the surplus could be about 270-300 billion euros for this period, respectively, the accumulated effect of the energy crisis amounted to 800 billion over 18 months.

In terms of the moving average for 12 months, the peak deficit reached 430 billion by the end of 2022, and by February 2023 the deficit amounted to 406 billion compared to the deficit of 29 billion a year earlier (for 12 months to February 2022 inclusive).

Interestingly, if we assess the geographical structure of the deficit, it turns out that the main contribution was made not by Russia (129 billion) and not by OPEC countries (79 billion), and not even by Norway (95 billion euros), but by China, which formed a record deficit for the EU countries of 389 billion euros, i.e. China's contribution to the global deficit of foreign trade of the EU countries is 96%! Accordingly, all other countries integrally formed only 17 billion deficits in total.

In addition to the above countries, the foreign trade deficit in the EU countries for 12 months to February 2023 was formed in: Vietnam - 40.1 billion, Algeria - 29.5 billion, Malaysia - 20.6 billion, India - 20.4 billion, Kazakhstan - 19.5 billion, Libya - 18 billion, Indonesia - 14.7 billion, Saudi Arabia - 14.1 billion, Taiwan - 13.4 billion and Thailand - 12.8 billion euros.

The surplus of foreign trade over 12 months in the EU (i.e. the EU exports more than it imports) in a not very large list of countries: USA - 147 billion, - Britain 113.3 billion, - Switzerland 47.6 billion, - Mexico 21.6 billion, - Australia 20.6 billion, - UAE 21.6 billion, - 17.8 Canada billion, - 11.9 Israel billion and - 10.6 Singapore billion.

The destabilizing component of foreign trade is energy, and the stabilizing one is a solvent market for knowledge-intensive products, as can be seen in the structure of countries with a deficit and trade profile with the EU.

Record foreign trade deficit

2022

EU share in world exports - fell to 14%.

Europe's share of global exports is declining. European business is warning politicians in Brussels not to damage the bloc's trade competitiveness.

"During the next cycle, the EU will need to carefully reconcile economic security measures to avoid a negative impact on Europe's competitiveness, and refrain from overloading trade agreements by pursuing other political goals," BusinessEurope.

Record volume of trade with the United States - more than $880 billion

EU is Turkey's biggest trading partner

Turkey is the EU's seventh largest trading partner. At the same time, the EU is Turkey's largest partner in the import and export of goods. In 2022, 26% of goods imports to Turkey were delivered from the EU, and 41% of goods exports to the EU.

The total trade in goods between the EU and Turkey in 2022 amounted to 198.1 billion euros (3.6% of the total EU trade with the world).

Take-off of rare earth metal supplies from China for the production of military equipment and electronics

The main railway route for freight trains passes through the territory of Russia, which carry rare earth metals from China to the West, necessary in the production of microchips, electronics and other modern military equipment.

EU data shows that Russian railways are a key conduit for strategic metals. China supplies more than 90% of the volume of rare earth metals used in the EU. For nine months of 2022, the volume of railway supplies through Russia increased to 36 thousand tons, which is twice as much as for the entire 2021. At the same time, raw materials were transported, among other things, by Russian Railways trains, despite the company's inclusion in the EU sanctions list.

Record volume of trade with Ukraine

The trade turnover of Ukraine and the EU is at its maximum in history, and exports from Ukraine to the EU in October 2022 updated their historical maximum, approaching 3 billion euros. Military turnover is not taken into account here.

From surplus to record deficit

The trade balance of the EU countries fell into a record deficit of 358 billion euros in the first 9 months of 2022 compared to a surplus of 91.7 billion euros, but since August 2021, the trade balance has already gone into deficit, whereas in a balanced raw material market and economic growth, the typical monthly surplus was 15-20 billion euros, and by September 2022, a deficit of 45 billion euros.

Europe loses 65 billion euros each month on foreign trade and up to 800 billion a year. The main contribution to the degradation of foreign trade was energy.

Here it is interesting to see what change in the foreign trade balance with the main trading partners outside the YeS-27.

The foreign trade deficit grew China from - it was 165 billion in the first 9 months in 2021, and became 300 billion euros, Russia with the deficit almost tripling from 43 billion to 126 billion euros. In third place - Norway it was 4.6 billion, and became 70.8 billion due to gas trade.

In the first 9 months of 2022, the EU increased the trade deficit with Vietnam to 28.6 billion against 20.8 billion in 2021, with Algeria increasing the deficit from 2.9 billion to 19.7 billion euros, with India 2.7 billion - > 16.4 billion and Malaysia 12.5 billion - > 15.7 billion euros.

The EU generates a foreign trade surplus with the USA (123.4 - > 113.2 billion euros), Great Britain (103.9 - > 76.3 billion euros), Switzerland (25.7 - > 28.1 billion euros), Mexico (10.6 - > 16.4 billion euros ), Canada (10.2 - > 14.8 billion euros), UAE (14.5 - > 15.8 billion euros) and Australia (17.8 - > 15.3 billion euros).

Among large countries Europe , the absolute anti-record of the trade balance France of and, Italy where the deterioration occurs continuously, breaking through new deficit highs. In another Germany surplus, but minimal in 25 years, and in aggregate, and Germany France Italy Spain captures the worst trade balance ever in trade with the whole world.

2021

Lithuania, Latvia and Finland lead the EU in Russia's share of foreign trade

December's record 13-year trade deficit

The eurozone reported its biggest trade deficit in 13 years. According to Eurostat, the eurozone trade deficit in December 2021 amounted to 9.7 billion euros ($11 billion).

EU among the leaders in grain exports

2020: Turkey and India are the main destinations for EU waste exports

Notes