{"id":453583,"date":"2026-05-14T16:23:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/05\/14\/la-cina-alla-conquista-dellue-surplus-commerciale-su-del-24-per-cento-in-un-anno\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T17:33:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T15:33:58","slug":"china-trade-surplus-eu-24percent-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/14\/china-trade-surplus-eu-24percent-year\/","title":{"rendered":"China sets its sights on the EU, with a 24 per cent increase in trade surplus over the past year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels –\u00a0China\u2019s trade surplus with the European Union has grown by 24 per cent in a year<\/strong>. In the first four months of 2026, Beijing accumulated a surplus of $113 billion with the EU-27, compared to $91 billion in the same period of 2025: an increase of $22 billion over twelve months, equivalent to approximately $180 million a day. We are talking about the difference between exports and imports.\u00a0The trend was reported by\u00a0the\u00a0Soapbox Newsletter<\/a>.\u00a0An analysis by the\u00a0Eunews<\/em>\u00a0editorial team of data from the Chinese Customs Administration (the most up-to-date source on Chinese trade) also reveals that\u00a0the European Union is the region where China achieves the largest trade surplus<\/strong>. In other words, it exports a great deal to the EU and imports very little, proportionally.<\/p>\n

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Chinese exports to the 27 EU member states reached $200.7 billion in the January\u2013April period<\/strong>, up 19 per cent on the previous year, while European imports rose to $87.6 billion. Apart from Europe, the other regions contributing most to Beijing\u2019s trade surplus are ASEAN (11 countries in South-East Asia), with $97 billion, and the United States, with $87.7 billion. Washington, despite the tariffs imposed by the US administration, remains a significant source of surplus for China: Beijing exported $133.4 billion to the United States while importing only $45.8 billion.<\/p>\n

An analysis of Eurostat data for 2025 shows that the EU\u2019s trade deficit with China is, in fact, increasing.\u00a0Compared with 2024<\/strong>,\u00a0European exports fell by 6.5 per cent while imports rose by 6.4 per cent<\/strong>.\u00a0Looking at 2015<\/strong>,\u00a0exports grew by 37.1 per cent compared to the\u00a0145.6 billion recorded at that time<\/strong>,\u00a0while imports rose by 89 per cent from the 295.9 billion euros of ten years ago<\/strong>. If European imports are rising faster than exports, it is clear that the trade deficit gap is widening. Moreover, as the interactive chart below shows, EU countries generally export more to the United States than they import from it, whereas, as we have seen, the exact opposite is true for China. Germany is by far the leading trader with both superpowers, while the figures for the Netherlands are distorted by re-exports, given the importance of Dutch commercial ports.<\/p>\n

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