Between the European Union and the United, there exists "the most important bilateral trade relationship in the world": this is confirmed by the statistics published today by Eurostat in the run-up to the EU-USA summit planned for Monday 30th April in Washington. "The amount of trade flows and investments states the report of the EU Statistics Office show a high degree of interdependence between the two economies". In 2006, the 27-member EU "exported 269 billion euros of goods to" the United States. Imports amounted to 178 billion. "The distinctive feature of these flows is the surplus of the 27-member EU, which has risen from 32 billion in 2000 to 91 billion last year": the rise in exports from Europe to America has gone hand in hand with a decrease in exports. Among the EU member states, Germany has been the greatest exporter to the USA (76 billion, equal to 28% of the total), followed by Great Britain. But trade is getting more intensive in virtually all of the EU member states, including the new ones. As to services (about 120 billion euros’ dealings a year), statistics are in favour of the EU again. They mostly concern transport, financial services, travelling and tourism.
