In 2017, the United States and China continued to be the two main goods trading partners of the European Union (EU), well ahead of Switzerland , Russia, Turkey and Japan, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
According to Eurostat the three main export partners of Cyprus are Libya, Greece and Norway and Greece Italy and China are its three top origins of imports.
In almost all EU Member States, the main partner for exports of goods in 2017 was another member of the European Union, except for Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom (the United States was the main destination of exports) as well as Cyprus (Libya) and Lithuania (Russia).
In some Member States, over a quarter of exports went to one single partner. Overall, Germany was the main destination of goods exports for 17 Member States and among the top three in 22 Member States. For extra-EU trade, that is trade with non-EU countries, the 3 main destinations of EU exports in 2017 were the United States (20% of all extra-EU exports), China (11%) and Switzerland (8%).
In 2017, the 28 EU Member States exported a total of €5 226 bn of goods, of which €3 347 bn (or 64%) were destined for another Member State of the EU (intra-EU trade).
With about three-quarters or more of goods exported to other EU Member States, Slovakia (86% intra-EU in total exports), Luxembourg and the Czech Republic (both 84%), Hungary (81%), Poland (80%), Romania and Slovenia (both 76%) and the Netherlands (75%) recorded in 2017 the highest shares of intra-EU exports. At the opposite end of the scale, Cyprus (37%) and the United Kingdom (48%) were the only Member States that exported more goods to non-EU countries than within the EU in 2017.
Overall, Germany was among the top three countries of origin of goods imported in all EU Member States except Ireland and Cyprus. For extra-EU trade, the main country of origin of goods imported into the EU in 2017 remained China (20% of all extra-EU imports), followed by the United States (14%) and Russia (8%).
In 2017, the 28 EU Member States imported a total of €5 131 bn of goods, of which €3 276 bn (or 64%) came from another EU Member State (intra-EU trade). Over three-quarters of total imports of goods originated from another EU Member State in Luxembourg (83%), Estonia (81%), Slovakia (80%), Latvia (79%), the Czech Republic and Croatia (both 78%), Austria (77%), Portugal, Hungary and Romania (all 76%). In contrast, the Netherlands (46%) was the only Member State where less than half of the imports came from within the EU.