The imports of the European Union (EU) of goods from the United Kingdom totaled € 6,398.8 million last January, a figure that represents a record year-on-year fall of 59.5%, after the end of the ‘Brexit’ transition period, according to data from the Community Statistical Office, Eurostat.
On the other hand, EU exports to the British country also suffered the impact of the change in the status of relations between the two economies, with a year-on-year fall of 27.4%, to € 17,984 million, which represents the greatest decline in the Sales to the UK since May and April 2020, when the first wave of the pandemic plunged EU exports by 35.6% and 38.6%, respectively.
In anticipation of the end of the ‘Brexit’ transition period, EU exports to the UK had grown by 10.1% in December and 11.1% in November, while imports had fallen by 2% and 1.6%, respectively. . In fact, the Twenty-seven purchases from the British country have been falling in year-on-year terms every month since December 2019.
In the first month of 2021, China was once again the first trade partner of the EU, receiving € 16.1 billion in exports from the 27, 6.6% more than in January 2020, while the EU’s imports from the Asian giant totaled € 33.3 billion, 3.8% less.
The United States repeated in January as the first destination for EU exports, with a total of € 28.2 billion, down 9.6%, while European imports of American products fell 26.3% year-on-year, to € 14.6 billion.
Globally, EU sales of goods abroad reached € 148.3 billion, 10.8% less than a year earlier, while imports fell 16.9%, to € 139.9 billion. Thus, the surplus in EU trade in goods stood at € 8.4 billion last January, compared to the deficit of € 2.2 billion a year earlier.
On the other hand, exports of goods from the euro zone reached a value of € 163.1 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 11.4%, while imports from the Twenty-seven totaled € 156.8 billion, 14.1% less than in January 2020, which which showed a positive trade balance of € 6.3 billion, compared to a surplus of € 1.5 billion a year earlier.
Internal EU trade in January 2021 totaled € 244.9 billion, 5.4% below the figure reached in January of the previous year, while trade between euro zone countries fell by 3.9% year-on-year, to € 159,700 million.
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