La Jornada: Trade between the European Union and the US reached a record

Berlin. Merchandise trade between the European Union (EU) and the United States reached a record 875 billion euros (one trillion dollars) last year despite growing tariff pressures, but the overall figures hide serious damage in key sectors, a study by the German Institute of Economics (IW) revealed yesterday.

Exports from European bloc countries to the United States rose 7.7 percent to 580 billion euros, while U.S. imports to the EU rose 2.2 percent to 295 billion, raising the EU’s trade surplus to almost 285 billion euros.

Damage to the automotive sector

The record numbers could suggest that tariffs introduced under President Donald Trump and political tensions have not greatly affected underlying economic relations or even inadvertently intensified them, but some sectors are already suffering significantly, particularly the automotive sector. EU exports of vehicles and auto parts to the United States fell 20.4 percent in 2025, and Germany – which accounts for almost two-thirds of EU car exports to the United States – recorded a drop of 18.9 percent.

Ireland bucked the trend with a 52.7 percent increase in exports, driven by tariff-free pharmaceutical and chemical products. Transatlantic trade in services also reached a record 865 billion euros, although the EU recorded a deficit of 178 billion euros in that category.

Intellectual property rights – covering software licenses, patents and trademarks – accounted for more than 40 percent of EU services imports, up 13.7 percent.