EU trade rises with its Asian partners

There was continued growth in international trade in goods between the EU and the ASEM (Asia Europe Meeting) partners in the first half of 2012, with exports rising from 226 billion euro in the first half of 2011 to 255 billion euro in the first half of 2012, and imports up from 373 billion euro to 379 billion euro. These figures were released Monday by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, on the occasion of the 9th ASEM Summit, which will take place on 5 and 6 November in Laos. Among the 27 EU Member States, Germany (88 bn euro or 35% of the total) was by far the largest exporter to the ASEM partners in the first half of 2012, followed by France (28 bn or 11%), the United Kingdom (26 bn or 10%) and Italy (20 bn or 8%). Germany (77 bn or 20%) was also by far the largest importer from the ASEM partners, followed by the Netherlands (63 bn or 17%), the United Kingdom (45 bn or 12%), France (32 bn or 8%) and Italy (31 bn or 8%). The 19 partner countries of the EU which are members of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) are China, India, Japan, Mongolia, Pakistan, South Korea, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 members of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations): Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.