In 2020, the EU Member States exported to countries outside of the EU services worth €910 billion, a 15% decrease compared with 2019. The extra-EU imports stood at €878 billion, down by 14% compared with 2019. The decrease in 2020 is due
to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related sanitary measures. About 90 % of the drop in exports and 60 % in imports was due to a decrease in travel and transport services.
This information comes from data on EU trade in services published by Eurostat on January 31, 2022. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.
Over the last decade, the EU trade in services balance rose from €76 billion in 2010 to a peak of EUR 134 billion in 2018 before falling back to EUR 33 billion in 2020.
USA and the UK: leading trade partners
In 2020, the EU’s leading trade partners for services were the United States and the United Kingdom. The United States and the United Kingdom were each the destination for a fifth (20 %) of the services exported from the EU Member States, ahead of Switzerland (12 %).
The United States was the origin of about a third (30 %) of the services imported into the EU from non-member countries, followed by the United Kingdom (18 %), and Switzerland (7 %).
For more information:
- Eurostat Statistics Explained article on international trade in services
- Eurostat dedicated section on international trade in services
- Eurostat database on international trade in services