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CELAC represents EU fifth most important trading partner: Eurostat

Xinhua, June 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Community of Latin America and Caribbean states (CELAC) was the European Union's (EU) fifth most important trading partner in 2014 behind the United States, China, Russia and Switzerland, according to data released by the EU's statistical office Eurostat on Tuesday.

The data was released ahead of the second EU-CELAC summit, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday here.

After a significant decrease in 2009 following the financial crisis, the value of EU imports of goods from CELAC recovered to a new peak of 112.3 billion euros (126.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2012 and then fell to stand at 98.6 billion euros in 2014.

Exports also declined in 2009, but in 2013 recovered more strongly to reach a peak of 117.5 billion euros, before decreasing to 110.6 billion euros in 2014.

As a result, the EU trade balance with CELAC, which moved into surplus in 2012, stood at 12.0 billion euros in 2014.

Specifically, EU exports of goods to CELAC were dominated by manufactured goods, which accounted in 2014 for 87 percent of total EU exports to CELAC. Conversely, primary goods made up 66 percent of EU imports from CELAC in 2014.

Among the EU member states, Germany was by far the largest exporter to CELAC in 2014, followed by Spain, Italy, France and The Netherlands.

The Netherlands and Spain were the main importers from CELAC in 2014, ahead of Germany, Britain, Italy and Belgium.

A majority of EU member states recorded a surplus in trade with CELAC in 2014, with the highest being recorded in Germany, France and Italy. By contrast, the largest deficits were observed in The Netherlands, Britain and Spain.

Among the CELAC countries, Brazil and Mexico were by far the two main trading partners of the EU in 2014, representing also the two countries with whom the EU recorded the highest surpluses in 2014.

By contrast, the largest EU deficits with CELAC members in 2014 were recorded in Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Trinidad and Tobago. Endit