By José Rámon Riera
The European Commission does not make clear decisions to solve the most pressing problems.
One is the need to set an equity policy with China because of the EU’s unbalanced purchasing system.
The trade performance with the top 10 countries with which the EU does business (United States, China, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Russia, Norway, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, and India) is alarming.
In November 2021, the EU sold to these 10 countries €1.317 trillion, with the United States being its largest customer, to whom it supplied €363.9 billion, the United Kingdom with €259.5 billion, China with €203.9 billion, and Switzerland, with over €143.8 billion.
One year later, EU exports grew by €202.3 billion, representing a growth of 15.4%, with the United States – with a growth of 28.4% – being the country that has grown the most in percentage terms.
It was followed by the United Kingdom, which increased its purchases from the EU by €44.6 billion, and Switzerland, which increased by €28.6 billion.
From the point of view of exports in 2021, and as of the same date, the EU member countries had imported from these 10 countries €1.31 trillion, representing a surplus of €7.1 billion.
The countries from which we imported the most products and services were China, which in 2021 we did so to the value of €423.2 billion; the United States, with €210.4 billion; Russia, with €145.3 billion; the United Kingdom, with €133 billion; and Switzerland, with €113.2 billion.
At that time, the EU had a surplus with the United States of €153.5 billion, the United Kingdom of €126.5 billion, and Switzerland of €30.6 billion.
And an already large deficit with China at €219.3 billion, Russia at €63.8 billion, and Norway at €12.3 billion.
But while exports with these 10 countries grew by 15.4%, imports grew by 42.8%.
Thus, China sold €579.9 billion to EU countries, increasing its sales by €156.7 billion.
This situation has led to China remaining the country that generates the most significant deficit for the EU.
In total, the European Union had, until November 2022, an accumulated deficit of €351.1 billion, worsening its trade situation with most countries except Switzerland and Japan.
With information from LGI