Preliminary data released by the EU on February 10 showed that in 2022, euro zone countries exported 2,877.8 billion euros to non-euro zone countries, up by 18.0% year on year; Imports from countries outside the region reached 3.1925 billion euros, up 37.5% year on year. As a result, the eurozone recorded a record deficit of €314.7bn in 2022. The shift from a surplus of 116.4 billion euros in 2021 to a huge deficit has had a considerable impact on Europe’s economy and society, including global factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis. Compared with the estimated trade data released by the United States, U.S. exports grew 18.4 percent and imports grew 14.9 percent in 2022, while the euro area’s exports and imports for the year were 144.9 percent and 102.3 percent of U.S. imports, respectively, at an exchange rate of about 1.05 to the dollar in December 2022. It is worth noting that EU trade also includes trade between the euro area and non-euro area members, as well as between euro area members. In 2022, the trade volume among euro area members was 2,726.4 billion Euros, an increase of 24.4% year on year, accounting for 44.9% of its external trade volume. It can be seen that the euro zone is still a significant participant in the global trading system. Both the export supply and import demand, as well as the total volume and commodity structure, deserve the attention of Chinese enterprises.
As a region with a higher degree of integration within the EU, the euro area has relatively stronger trade competitiveness. In 2022, the implementation of the Ukraine crisis and the ensuing trade sanctions and other measures fundamentally changed the foreign trade pattern of European countries. On the one hand, European countries are trying to find new sources of fossil fuels, driving up global oil and gas prices. On the other hand, countries are speeding up the transition to new energy sources. The gap between the EU’s exports and imports in 2022, up 17.9 percent and 41.3 percent year on year respectively, is wider than in the euro zone. In terms of commodity categories, the EU imported primary products from outside the region in 2022 with a year-on-year increase of 80.3% and a deficit of 647.1 billion euros. Among primary products, EU imports of food and beverages, raw materials and energy increased by 26.9 percent, 17.1 percent and 113.6 percent, respectively. However, the EU also exported 180.1 billion euros of energy to countries outside the region in 2022, with a year-on-year increase of 72.3%, indicating that EU countries did not interfere too much in the flow of energy trade in the face of energy challenges, and EU enterprises still grasped the opportunity of rising international energy prices to gain profits from exports. Eu imports and exports of manufactured goods grew slightly more slowly than those of primary goods. In 2022, the EU exported 2,063 billion euros of manufactured goods, up 15.7 percent from the previous year. Among them, the largest exports were machinery and vehicles, exports reached 945 billion euros, up 13.7 percent year on year; Chemical exports were 455.7 billion euros, up 20.5 percent year on year. In comparison, the EU imports these two categories of goods in a slightly smaller scale, but the growth rate is faster, reflecting the EU’s important position in the global industrial goods supply chain and its contribution to global value chain cooperation in related areas.