The decline in the trade surplus was driven by a 10.3% drop in European exports to the United States.
On Monday, the European statistical office Eurostat published a report indicating that the European Union’s trade surplus in goods with the United States plummeted by 48.1% in June 2025 compared to the same month last year, decreasing from 18.5 billion euros to 9.6 billion, reports 24brussels.
The significant drop in the trade surplus results from a 10.3% decline in European exports to the United States, totaling 40.2 billion euros, coupled with a sharp 16.4% increase in imports of U.S. products into the EU, which rose to 30.6 billion euros.
This data precedes a late July agreement between the U.S. and the EU that implemented a 15% tariff on European exports to the U.S. This agreement also commits the EU to purchase 750 billion euros in U.S. liquefied natural gas and oil to replace Russian supplies and invest at least $600 billion in the U.S. economy by 2029.
Furthermore, the report emerges after the U.S. imposed tariffs on European imports due to the ongoing efforts to reduce the EU’s trade surplus in goods with the United States.
Overall, the EU’s trade surplus with the rest of the world also saw a dramatic decline in June 2025 compared to the same month in 2024, falling 60.6% from 20.3 billion euros to 8 billion euros. While EU exports to the rest of the world remained stable at 213.7 billion euros, imports surged by 6.4% from the previous year, reaching 205.7 billion euros.
By product category, trade in primary goods recorded a negative balance of 23.4 billion euros, significantly affected by an energy deficit of 23.4 billion and a 3 billion deficit in raw materials, despite a surplus of 3.1 billion in food and beverages.
In contrast, the surplus in manufactured goods in June stood at 29.3 billion euros, driven by positive balances in chemicals (14.3 billion euros) and machinery and vehicles (16.4 billion euros), although offset by a deficit in other manufactured goods amounting to 1.4 billion euros.
The reduction in the EU’s trade surplus with the United States coincided with an expanding deficit with China, which increased from 20.4 billion euros in June 2024 to 29.5 billion euros in June 2025.
With the United Kingdom, the EU reported a surplus of 16.5 billion euros in June, marking an 18.7% increase, while the surplus with Switzerland rose to 5.7 billion euros, a 22.1% uptick from the same month in the previous year.
From January to June, the bloc’s overall trade surplus in goods with the rest of the world decreased by 13.8%, falling from 92.9 billion euros in the same timeframe of 2024 to 80.1 billion euros this year.
Eurozone Situation
The eurozone’s trade surplus in goods with the rest of the world experienced a staggering 66.2% collapse in June 2025 compared to the same month last year, decreasing from 20.7 billion euros to 7 billion euros.
Exports from eurozone countries utilizing the single currency rose by 0.4%, from 236.3 billion euros to 237.2 billion euros. However, imports escalated at a faster pace, increasing by 6.8% from 215.6 billion euros in June 2024 to 230.2 billion euros a year later.
This trend can be attributed to declines in the surplus from chemicals, which dropped from 20.6 billion euros to 15.1 billion euros, machinery and vehicles from 17.4 billion euros to 13.6 billion euros, and other manufactured goods that shifted from a surplus of 2.4 billion euros to a deficit of 400 million euros.
This year, the eurozone’s surplus with the rest of the world has decreased by 8.5% compared to the same period in 2024, falling from 102 billion euros to 93.3 billion euros.
