In 2015, the United States (€619 billion, or 18% of total EU trade in goods) and China (€521 billion, or 15%) continued to be the two main goods trading partners of the European Union (EU), well ahead of Switzerland (€253 billion, or 7%) and Russia (€210 billion, or 6%). Trends observed over recent years are however very different for these top trading partners of the EU.
After recording a significant and almost continuous fall until 2011, the share of the United States in EU total trade in goods has begun to increase again to reach 18% in 2015. The share of China has doubled since 2002, rising from 7% to 15% in 2015. Since 2013 the share of Russia in total EU trade in goods has declined sharply to 6% in 2015. The share of Switzerland remained almost unchanged at 7% over the entire time period.
