EU exports more to Switzerland than to China
30/04/2009
The European Union (EU) has reported a trade deficit with China of €169 billion for 2008.
The European Commission has issued figures showing that, collectively, the 27 member states exported €78.4 billion worth of goods to China last year and imported products valued at €248 billion.
The Commission said an imbalance of trade in textiles, as well as in iron and steel and in office and telecomms equipment, was the main reason.
It said China was Europe's fastest growing export market, with the 2008 total representing an increase of 9% compared to the year before. Also, it pointed out that export growth between 2004 and 2008 has been approximately 65%, and that two decades ago there was practically no trade between the two partners. However, it said that the EU still exports more to Switzerland, which has a population of 7.5 million people, than it does to China, whose population is 1.3 billion.
On the import side, growth on incoming goods from China has run at 18% per year for the last five years, although growth last year was slower.
It said that theft of intellectual property rights (IPR) remains "a huge problem for European businesses in China", and that almost 60% of all counterfeit goods seized at European borders in 2007 (with sports apparel and footwear featuring prominently in these hauls) came from there. In 2007, according to the Commission, European manufacturers estimated that IPR violations had cost them 20% of their potential revenues in China.
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