Yesterday, Ambassador Kirk met with European Union (EU) Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli. During the meeting, they discussed a range of issues that affect food and agricultural product trade between the United States and the EU, including several sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues.
The United States’ economic relationship with the EU is the largest and most complex in the world, generating trade flows of about $3.6 billion a day [2010] and transatlantic investment is directly responsible for roughly 7.1 million jobs [2008 estimate]. This enormous volume of transatlantic trade and investment promotes economic prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic and in the dozens of other countries that trade with the transatlantic partners.
U.S. goods and services trade with the EU totaled almost $800 billion in 2009. The EU countries, together, would rank second as an export market for the United States in 2010. The five largest country markets were United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, France, and Belgium. The top export categories in 2010 were machinery, aircraft, optic and medical instruments, pharmaceutical products, and electrical machinery.
U.S. exports of agricultural products to EU countries totaled $8.9 billion in 2010. The EU countries together would rank fifth as an agricultural export market for the United States that year, and leading categories included tree nuts, soybeans, processed fruit and vegetables, tobacco, and wine and beer.
