China remains EU's biggest source of imports in 2015: official data

BRUSSELS - China secured its position as the biggest source of imports of the 28-country European Union (EU) and its share of the bloc's all imports from outside world reached 20 percent in 2015, official data showed on Thursday.

For extra-EU trade, the main country of origin of goods imported into the EU in 2015 was China, followed by the United States and Russia, said Eurostat, the statistical agency of the EU.

China also ranked the second destination of EU exports last year with a share of 10 percent of all extra-EU exports, following the US which shared 21 percent, the agency said.

All in all, China and the EU's trade was worth up to 521 billion euros ($593.43 billion) in 2015 and China's share of total EU trade in goods has doubled since 2002, rising from 7 percent to 15 percent, said Eurostat.

The figures made China the second biggest goods trading partner to the EU in 2015, after the US, of which the trade volume reached 619 billion euros, or 18 percent of total EU trade in goods.

Data showed the US and China were well ahead of the bloc's other top partners. Switzerland ranked the third, with the bilateral trade value worth up to 253 billion euros, or 7 percent in the share.

The share of Russia in total EU trade in goods has declined sharply to 6 percent in 2015, Eurostat said.

The EU has become China's biggest trade partner and now their bilateral trade was well over 1 billion euros a day.