EU-US Trade and Investment - briefing

18 March 2009
by eub2 -- last modified 18 March 2009

Facts and figures on Trade and Investment between the European Union and the United States.

Largest trade partners: The European Union and the United States form the largest bilateral trade partnership in the world if you look at goods and services combined. Goods trade alone in 2008 amounted to €435 billion.

A trade surplus: In 2008, the EU enjoys a surplus of €63 billion in goods trade with the US, importing €186 billion while exporting €249 billion. While the US remains the first destination for EU goods, the EU now imports more from China. EU trade with the US is dominated by manufactured goods. In 2007, more than two-fifths of trade with the US were machinery and vehicles, with chemicals and other manufactured each accounting for more than a fifth of trade.

Services trade: Trade in services has continued to grow in both directions, with total trade estimated at more than €266 billion (2007 figures). Again the EU recorded a surplus (€11 billion).

Largest investment partners: The EU and the United States are each other’s largest foreign investor. In 2007, the stock of EU direct investment in the US reached €1043 billion, accounting for almost half of the total stock of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States. In 2007, EU investment represented 42 percent of global investment flows to the United States. The transatlantic investment relationship is also symmetrical: in 2007, the US stock of FDI in the EU totalled €1030 billion. In 2007, over half of all private direct investment outflows from the United States were directed to the EU.

Millions of jobs in the United States: Of the 5.3 million Americans employed in the United States by foreign companies in 2006, 3.6 million (i.e. two thirds) worked for EU companies. With a payroll of close to $200 billion, EU companies on average paid US workers 18 percent more than workers were paid at other US firms.

Millions of jobs in Europe: Likewise, in 2006, majority-owned US affiliates employed 4 million workers in the EU, and support a total payroll of more than $200 billion.

Manufacturing jobs: 37 percent of US jobs at EU-owned firms are in manufacturing, a sector that accounts for 13 percent of US private sector jobs. EU direct investment is responsible for 57 percent of all US manufacturing employment supported by majority-owned foreign firms. US affiliates employ 1.9 million manufacturing workers within the EU, accounting for 40 percent of all manufacturing jobs abroad that are supported by US foreign direct investment.

Stronger and more competitive economies

Innovation: In 2006, EU-owned firms in the United States spent nearly $20 billion on R&D. US-owned firms in the EU spent over $18 billion (65 percent of global US affiliate expenditures on R&D).

Productivity: In 2006, the total output of EU-owned firms in the United States was $392 billion and that of US-owned firms in the EU $541 billion, accounting for roughly 55% of the US companies total global output.

Profits: In 2007, US-owned firms in the EU earned a record $177 billion, which is more than half of US companies' total global earnings. EU companies' earnings in the United States amounted to over $80 billion.

Exports: EU-owned firms in the United States contributed more than $85 billion to U.S. exports in 2005.

Long-term commitment to the transatlantic economy

EU-owned firms reinvested nearly half of their U.S. income – $34 billion – back into the U.S. economy in 2006.

Data Source: European Commission/Eurostat/US Bureau of Economic Analysis