EU-Australia Trade News: Great Money-spinners For Each Other
- June 19th, 2009
- Posted by EUEditor
The EU office in Australia has been drawing attention to figures just out, confirming the major place of Europe in Australia’s commerce overseas.
It says:
Trade statistics for 2008, released by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 17 June, show that the total value of Australian exports of goods and services grew by 27.6% last year to $277.9bn, while imports rose by 18.9% to $282.9bn.
As a single entity, the EU remains Australia’s largest trading partner (measured in two-way trade) in both goods and services, accounting for 16.3% of total trade in 2008 ($91.3bn, +15%).
That’s ahead of ASEAN with $88.9bn (+26%), Japan with $76.0bn (+39%) and China with $73.8bn (+27%).
Imports from the EU increased by 14.2% to $58.7bn (20.8% of total), while exports to the EU increased by 16.5% to $32.5bn (11.7% of total).
The principal Australian merchandise imports from the EU in 2008 were medicaments ($4.8bn, +5.2%) and passenger motor vehicles ($3.8bn, +17.4%), while the main exports to the EU included coal ($6.2bn, +104.2%) and gold ($4.8bn, +75.8%).
In separate Australian Bureau of Statistics data on trade in services, released on the same day, the EU accounted for 18.9% of the value of Australia’s two-way trade in services in 2008 ($20.3bn, +6.6%), ahead of ASEAN with $18.2bn (+18.3%) and the United States with $15.9bn (+11.5%).
Services imports from the EU rose by 9.6% to $11.3bn (21.0% of total) while services exports to the EU increased by 3.1% to $9.0bn (16.9% of total).
Australia’s main services imports from the EU in 2008 were personal travel ($4.0bn, +1.0%) and transportation ($3.0bn, -0.6%), while the principal exports to the EU were similarly personal travel ($4.8bn, +0.7%) and transportation ($1.5bn, +4.5%).
Reference:
EC Delegation to Australia, Canberra, “EU remains Australia’s largest trading partnerâ€, 19.6.09. [email protected], (19.6.09).