China Doesn’t Like America’s Trade With “Europeans”

In 2020, China became the European Union’s largest trading partner for the first time, overtaking the United States, thanks to the rapid recovery of its economy, which was less affected by the Covid-19 epidemic than the economies of western partners.

In the past year, the European Union’s trade volume with China reached $ 586 billion (total exports and imports), compared with $ 555 billion with the United States, according to figures released Monday by the European Statistical Institute (Eurostat).

“In the year 2020, China has been the European Union’s main trading partner,” Eurostat said in a statement.

While the European Union has been China’s largest trading partner since 2004, it is the first time that the opposite is true, that is, that China is ahead of the United States in the volume of trade with Europe.

According to the institute, this result is attributed to an increase in European imports from China (+ 5.6% in 2020 compared to 2019) as well as European exports to China (+ 2.2%).

At the same time, trade with the United States recorded a significant drop in both imports (-13.2%) and exports (-8.2%).

After suffering the consequences of Covid-19 during the first quarter, the Chinese economy has largely recovered and consumption at the end of the year exceeded its level of a year ago, which led to a increase in European sales, especially automobiles and luxury goods.

Chinese exports to Europe have benefited from strong demand for medical equipment and electronic products.

The European Union has seen a worsening trade deficit with China, which fell from -164.7 billion euros in 2019 to -181 billion last year. Meanwhile, the surplus with the United States remained stable at around € 151 billion.

The United Kingdom, which is no longer part of the European Union, has become the bloc’s third trading partner after China and the United States.

Nonetheless, European exports to Britain fell 13.2% last year and imports fell 13.9%.

In total, the European Union recorded in 2020 a sharp increase in the trade surplus with the rest of the world, to 217.3 billion euros, against 191.5 billion in 2019.