Turkey becomes EU's fifth-largest trade partner

By Abdulselam Durdak

FRANKFURT

Turkey became the European Union’s fifth-largest trade partner in 2015 according to data released by Eurostat.

According to new report on euro area international trade in goods surplus, the EU exported goods worth of €2.04 trillion [$2.27 trillion] in 2015 while total imports stood at €1.79 trillion.

In 2015, Turkey’s exports to the EU rose to €79 billion from €75 billion, up six percent. Turkey’s imports from the EU surged to €61.6 billion, rising 13 percent year on year.

Advance in both export and import numbers push Turkey-EU bilateral trade volume to €140.6 billion from €128.9 billion, up nine percent from a year earlier making Turkey the EU’s fifth largest trade partner, surpassing Norway.

Norway’s trade volume with block was down to €123.2 billion in 2015 from €135.3 billion a year earlier, declining nine percent.

The U.S. retained the title of the largest trade partner of the EU in 2015 with the bloc’s exports reaching €369.5 billion and imports at €246.2 billion.

Both exports and imports to the U.S. rose 19 percent.

In 2015, the EU's second-largest trading partner was China.

Last year EU exports to China were worth €170.4 billion while imports were €350.3 billion. After China were Switzerland, Russia and Turkey.