EU exports to China require balancing with imports from the country
The European Union wants to reduce its trade deficit with China. Ursula von der Leyen says this will decrease dependence on foreign supplies. At the same time, the EU government wants to increase exports to China.
Imports from the Asian country to Europe reached a record high in 2022. At that time, the region received products worth €400 billion. The figure raised concerns in the European Parliament, pointing to import dependency risks. Since then, the government has tried to rebalance trade relations with China. However, this has proved to be a difficult task for the European Union. As a result, Beijing remained the EU’s most important partner in 2023. At the same time, the trade deficit between the two countries totalled USD 291 billion over the period. It fell by 27% over the year but remains high.
The President of the European Commission has said that diversifying supply chains is one of the key ways to reduce risk. There is as yet no indication of how the government will implement this.
Distribution of exports/imports in the EU
It is worth noting that the EU is also an active importer from many countries:
– China ranks first in terms of supply, accounting for about 20% of all imports;
– the US share is 13.7%;
– the UK is in third place (7.2 per cent);
– imports from Switzerland account for 5.5%;
– Norway supplies the EU with 4.7% of the total.
The main partners for EU exports are:
– the US is in first place with 19.7% of the total number of shipments;
– the UK accounts for 13.1%;
– China ranks third, with shipments to the country accounting for 8.8% of total exports.
The Netherlands accounted for the largest share of Chinese imports in 2023. This EU country bought €117 billion worth of products from the PRC. Germany follows it with deliveries worth €95 billion. Italy completes the top three with an indicator of 48 bn euro.
Germany is the only EU country with a positive trade balance with China. Berlin exported 97 billion euros worth of goods to Beijing. France sold goods worth 25 billion euros, while the Netherlands sold goods worth 22 billion euros.
The situation will improve if we compare EU-China trade relations in 2022 and 2023. Experts talk about rebalancing, but not in all directions. Chinese car imports are still at a high level. In 2023, €3.5 billion worth of vehicles were imported from China. This figure is 36.7% higher than the imports of these products in 2022.
