EU/ASEAN trade deficit narrows
To coincide with the EU-ASEAN Summit which took place in Singapore today (November 22), Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, has released the latest figures on trade between the EU27 and the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — which illustrate that the gap in trade appears to be closing.
While there was still a trade deficit of €30 billion in the EU27 in 2006, this has been reduced from €34 billion in 2000 as EU27 exports of goods to ASEAN countries increased €7 billion to €49 billion between 2000 and 2006 and imports from ASEAN only increased €4 billion to €79 billion.
According to the figures Germany, France and the UK are the main EU trade partners of ASEAN with Germany accounting for €14.5 billion, or 29% of total EU exports, followed by France (€6.8 billion or 14%) and the UK (€6.5 billion or 13%).
In terms of imports The Netherlands was the main European market for ASEAN at €16.2 billion or 20%, followed by the UK (€15.3 billion or 19%) and Germany (14.8 billion or 19%). Only six EU Member States recorded surpluses in trade with ASEAN in 2006, while the largest deficits were registered by the Netherlands (-€12.2 billion), the UK (-€8.8 billion) and Spain (-€3.1 billion). Singapore is the largest ASEAN exporter at €19.9 billion, or 40% of the total, followed by Malaysia (€10.3 billion or 21%) and Thailand (€7.3 billion or 15%).
