US Remains EU’s Top Partner In Trade Of Services

Countries band together by joining international organizations or signing treaties, to promote trade, defend human rights, and repel threats. With the creation of the European Union (EU), this happened in a big way.

The EU is a political and economic institution of twenty-seven member states. It is functioning through a structure that consists of intergovernmental collaborated resolutions and supranational individual institutions by the member states. Currently, the EU partners with several other countries around the globe to promote trade in goods and services.

Its top trade partner in recent times has been China and the United States (US). While its trade in goods bloomed with China, leaving the US behind as its top partner, the US remained its top services trade partner. Many of the European and American jobs are dependent on the services as compared to goods.

There is no final data of the entire last year as yet, with respect to the turnover of trade in services. However, from the information available Trade in services during that period, between the US and EU was €296.3 billion. This amounts to five times more than the EU’s trade in services with China, which was €53.3 billion.

Going by these figures, the EU’s largest trading partner is actually the US, as has been the case for decades.

Under the Trump Administration in 2019, the US concluded all formalities necessary to launch negotiations on a trade agreement, so did European Commission.

In 2019 the trade of goods and services between the US and EU added up to an estimate of $1.1 trillion. Out of this total, Exports accounted for $468 billion, while imports were $598 billion. In the same year, the goods and services trade deficit of the US with the EU amounted to $130 billion.

The trade-in goods between the two countries was $720 billion in 2019, this included imports and exports. US exports of goods amounted to $268 billion and imports were $452 billion. This left the US goods trade deficit at $184 billion in 2019.

However, the same year, the US saw a trade surplus in services. Trade-in services totaled an estimated $346.2 billion, with the EU. The break up is such that exports were $200 billion and imports were $146 billion. This gave the US a trade surplus of $54 billion in services.

At present there is no data for the trade-in services between the two countries available, for last year. A clearer picture of the trade situation between the two countries is only possible once the official data for the entire 2020 is released. Trade-in services are usually ignored. Trade is not just the flow of goods, it comprises services too and this is what amounts to international commerce. Thus when the two aspects of the trade are evaluated together, then the US definitely trumps China with respect to trade with the EU.