Archive:Impact of COVID-19 on international trade by product group
This Statistics Explained article has been archived - for recent articles on International trade in goods see here.
Data extracted in March 2022.
Planned article update: no date foreseen.
Highlights
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_eu27_2020sitc)
To help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world have taken a variety of restrictive measures which have negatively affected international trade in goods in 2020. However, in 2021 international trade recovered strongly. This article is part of an online publication containing articles on the Impact of COVID-19 on international trade in goods statistics. In this article, the impact on different product groups is presented. To ensure comparability over time, seasonally and working-day adjusted data are used.
Full article
Comparison with the previous year
The development of trade is somewhat different for the six product groups shown in Figure 1. Chemicals and food & drink were largely unaffected by the COVID-19 crisis, while there was a moderate drop for imports and exports of raw materials. By contrast, machinery & vehicles, other manufactured products and, in particular energy, all had large drops. By the end of 2021, for both exports and imports, almost all product groups were above the level of January 2020; the exceptions were in exports of food & drink (-1 %) and machinery & vehicles (-3 %).
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_eu27_2020sitc)
The product group showing the largest rebound from the COVID-19 crisis 2021 compared with the previous year was energy where exports increased by 61.7 % and imports increased by 71.7 % (see Figure 2). These increases were a result of recovery from the COVID-19 crisis combined with a rise in prices for major energy products, such as crude oil. Exports (32.3 %) and imports (32.9 %) of raw materials also grew strongly during this period. Exports and imports of all other product groups also grew in 2021 compared with 2020.
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_eu27_2020sitc)
Table 1 shows the growth rates for imports per quarter in 2021 compared with the same quarters in 2020. In the first quarter there were drops for energy, food & drink and chemicals and modest increases for the other product groups. In the following quarters there were larger increases for all product groups with especially large increases for energy.
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_eu27_2020sitc)
In the first quarter of 2021, growth rates for extra-EU exports were still negative for food & drink, chemicals and machinery & vehicles and close to zero for energy and other manufactured goods (see Table 2). Only raw materials increased by 23.4 %. Similar to imports, in the following quarters there were larger increases for all product groups with especially large increases for energy.
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_eu27_2020sitc)
Overall, 2021 compared with 2020 showed a clear increase for all product groups for both imports and exports (see Figures 3 and 4). Exports show largely the same developments as imports but as the EU exports far less energy than it imports, the drop is not as visible as in imports. Comparing 2021 with 2019 shows an overall increase for most products; the exceptions were a 1 % decrease for imports of food & drink and a 5 % decrease for exports of machinery & vehicles.
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_eu27_2020sitc)
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_eu27_2020sitc)
Quarter to quarter comparison
In the quarter to previous quarter comparison for 2020 and 2021, imports of machinery and vehicles increased the most in the third quarter of 2020 (see Table 3). Food & drink, raw materials and chemicals all increased the most in the second quarter of 2021. Other manufactured goods grew most in the fourth quarter of 2021. Energy had increases of over 30 % in both the first and fourth quarters of 2021.
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_eu27_2020sitc)
For exports the largest quarter to quarter increases for raw materials, machinery & vehicles and other manufactured goods happened in the third quarter of 2020 (see Table 4). Food & drink followed in the fourth quarter of 2020, and energy in the first quarter of 2021. Finally, chemicals' best quarter was the third quarter of 2021.
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_eu27_2020sitc)
Trade in goods during the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial crisis
The previous sections of this article reported on goods broken down according to the SITC classification. In this final section some more detail using the HS classification at two-digit level is provided.
Figure 5 compares the shock and recovery of imports of goods between the financial crisis of 2009 and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, showing the most traded products. For eight of those products the shocks in 2009 were larger than in 2020, the major exception being fuels. In both crises, exports of pharmaceuticals did not fall while for aircraft there was a fall in 2020 but not in 2009. Two years after the initial shock of the financial crisis there were still four products (machinery, fuels, vehicles and iron and steel) whose imports had not fully recovered. In comparison, for the COVID-19 pandemic only imports of vehicles and aircraft were below the pre-pandemic level.
Figure 6 compares the shock and recovery of exports of goods between the financial crisis of 2009 and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, showing the most traded products. For seven of those products the shocks in 2009 were larger than in 2020, the exceptions being fuels, optical, photographic and various other instruments and aircraft. In both crises exports of pharmaceuticals did not fall. Two years after the initial shock of the financial crisis there were still five products (machinery, fuels, electrical machinery, vehicles and iron and steel whose exports had not fully recovered. In comparison, for the COVID-19 pandemic only exports of machinery, vehicles and aircraft were below the pre-pandemic level.
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
EU data is taken from Eurostat's COMEXT database. COMEXT is the reference database for international trade in goods. It provides access not only to both recent and historical data from the EU Member States but also to statistics of a significant number of third countries. International trade aggregated and detailed statistics disseminated via the Eurostat website are compiled from COMEXT data according to a monthly process.
Data are collected by the competent national authorities of the Member States and compiled according to a harmonised methodology established by EU regulations before transmission to Eurostat. For extra-EU trade, the statistical information is mainly provided by the traders on the basis of customs declarations.
EU data are compiled according to Community guidelines and may, therefore, differ from national data published by the Member States. Statistics on extra-EU trade are calculated as the sum of trade of each of the 27 EU Member States with countries outside the EU. In other words, the EU is considered as a single trading entity and trade flows are measured into and out of the area, but not within it.
The EU-27 data reflect the political change in the EU composition. Therefore, the United Kingdom was considered as an extra-EU partner country for the EU-27. However, the United Kingdom was still part of the internal market until the end of the transitory period, meaning that data on trade with the United Kingdom were still based on statistical concepts applicable to trade between the EU main partners. As a consequence, while imports from any other extra-EU-27 trade partner are grouped by country of origin, the United Kingdom data reflect country of consignment. In practice this means that the goods imported by the EU-27 from the United Kingdom were physically transported from the United Kingdom but part of these goods could have been of other origin than the United Kingdom. For this reason data on trade with the United Kingdom are not fully comparable with data on trade with other extra-EU-27 trade partners.
Methodology
According to the EU concepts and definitions, extra-EU trade statistics (trade between EU Member States and non-EU countries) do not record exchanges involving goods in transit, placed in a customs warehouse or given temporary admission (for trade fairs, temporary exhibitions, tests, etc.). This is known as ‘special trade’. The partner is the country of final destination of the goods for exports and the country of origin for imports.
Unit of measure
Trade values are expressed in millions or billions (109) of euros. They correspond to the statistical value, i.e. to the amount which would be invoiced in the event of sale or purchase at the national border of the reporting country. It is called a FOB value (free on board) for exports and a CIF value (cost, insurance, freight) for imports.
Context
Trade is an important indicator of Europe’s prosperity and place in the world. The bloc is deeply integrated into global markets both for the products it sources and the exports it sells. The EU trade policy is a major element of the external dimension of the ‘Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’ and is one of the main pillars of the EU’s relations with the rest of the world.
Because the 27 EU Member States share a single market and a single external border, they also have a single trade policy. EU Member States speak and negotiate collectively, both in the World Trade Organization, where the rules of international trade are agreed and enforced, and with individual trading partners. This common policy enables them to speak with one voice in trade negotiations, maximising their impact in such negotiations. This is even more important in a globalised world in which economies tend to cluster together in regional groups.
The openness of the EU’s trade regime has meant that the EU is the biggest player on the global trading scene and remains a good region to do business with. Thanks to the ease of modern transport and communications, it is now easier to produce, buy and sell goods around the world which gives European companies of every size the potential to trade outside Europe.
Direct access to
- International trade in goods (t_ext_go), see:
- International trade in goods - long-term indicators (t_ext_go_lti)
- International trade in goods - short-term indicators (t_ext_go_sti)
- International trade in goods (ext_go), see:
- International trade in goods - aggregated data (ext_go_agg)
- International trade in goods - long-term indicators (ext_go_lti)
- International trade in goods - short-term indicators (ext_go_sti)
- International trade in goods - detailed data (detail)
- EU trade since 1988 by SITC (DS-018995)
- International trade in goods statistics - background
- International trade in goods (ESMS metadata file — ext_go_esms)
- User guide on European statistics on international trade in goods