The United States remained the largest trading partner of the European Union (EU) for both goods and services at the end of the first half of 2011, the EU's statistics authorities said Friday.
The 27 nations in the EU held a goods trade surplus of 35 billion euros (about 46 billion U.S. dollars) with the United States in the first six months this year, Eurostat said in a statement on its website, three days before the EU-U.S. summit to be held in Washington.
The statistics office also revealed the U.S. share in total EU trade in goods declined steadily over the last decade.
While in 2000, the United States accounted for 28 percent of EU's total exports and 21 percent of imports, these shares had fallen to 18 percent and 11 percent respectively by 2010, according to the statement.
After a significant decrease in 2009, the value of EU's trade in goods with the United States partially recovered in 2010, with exports rose to 242 billion euros in 2010 compared with 206 billion euros in 2009 and 250 billion euros in 2008, and imports to 170 billion euros compared with 159 billion euros in 2009 and 187 billion euros in 2008.
This recovery continued in the first half of 2011, with EU's exports to the United States increasing to 129 billion euros compared with 114 billion euros in the same period of 2010 and imports rising to 94 billion euros compared with 83 billion euros, according to Eurostat.
The figures also showed that Germany and Britain are the largest two EU traders with the United States, with Germany exporting 35 billion euros of goods, or 27 percent of the EU's total, to the United States in the first half this year.(1 euro = 1.33 U.S. dollar)./.