On the occasion of the EU-CELAC, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Summit, held on 26 January in Santiago de Chile, Eurostat published the latest updates on trade between the two trading partners. During the years 2003-2008, the interchange of consumer goods grew steadily, to collapse in 2009 and since then undertake a decisive recovery, with an amount that increased from 75 billion euros in 2009 to 101 in 2011. Between 2003 and 2011, the EU always recorded negative balances, with the deficit which in 2011 amounted to 12 billion. Despite that, the first nine months of 2012 showed constant growth in European exports (+16%), exceeding the share of imports themselves (+2%), with the result of reversing the trend and thus bringing the trade balance back into surplus.
Among the European markets, Germany was by far the largest exporter (24,4 billion, 28% of the total), followed by Italy (10,6 billion, 12%), Spain (10,4 billion, 12%) and France (9,7 billion, 11%). In terms of imports, the Netherlands leads (17 billion, 20%), Spain (15,5 billion, 18%), Germany (13,5 billion, 13%), United Kingdom (9,9 billion, 11%) and Italy (7,7 billion, 9%). Thus, the largest positive balances were accounted for in Germany (+10,9 billion), France (+3,8 billion) and Italy (+2,9 billion), while the deficits hit the Netherlands the hardest (-9,8 billion), Spain (-5 billion) and the United Kingdom (-3,9 billion).
Among the 33 CELAC member countries, Brazil represents, at the same time, the largest destination market (29,6bn, 34%) and procurement (28,5 billion, 33%) of EU countries, followed by Mexico (20,7 billion, 24% export; 14,3 billion, 17% import), Argentina (6,5 billion, 8% export; 7,7 billion, 9% import) and Chile (6,1 billion, 7% export; 7,4, 9% import). Six more profitable positive balances concerned Mexico (+6,3 billion) and Panama (+1,8 billion), the largest deficits were recorded in Costa Rica (-4,4 billion), Colombia (-2,3 billion) and Peru (-2,2 ,XNUMX billion).
