As the EU’s biggest trading partner, China overtook the United States last year, the EU statistics agency Eurostat said on Monday.
Meanwhile, Britain, which is no longer part of the European Union, was the bloc’s third-largest trading partner, behind China and the US, the agency said.
China’s dominance came after suffering from the coronavirus pandemic during the first quarter, but with consumption still exceeding its pace of a year ago at the end of 2020, it recovered vigorously.
This has helped drive European product sales, particularly in the automotive and luxury goods sectors, while China’s exports to Europe have benefited from strong demand for medical equipment and electronics.
Dethroning the US comes as the EU and China are trying to ratify a long-negotiated investment agreement that would give greater access to the Chinese market to European companies.
As per Eurostat, the amount of trade with China reached EUR 586 billion ($711 billion) in 2020 compared to EUR 555 billion ($673 billion) for the US. The agency said EU exports increased by 2.2% to EUR 202.5 billion, while at the same time, imports from the People’s Republic of China increased by 5.6% to EUR 383.5 billion.
