EU-South Africa trade up again

After the decline in European Union trade in goods with South Africa since 2009, exports recovered strongly to reach a peak of 26.6 billion euro in 2012, while imports grew to reach 20.5 bn in 2012. As a result, EU trade with South Africa registered a surplus of 6.1 bn in 2012. These figures were released Monday by Eurostat, the EU statistical office on the occasion of the sixth European Union - South Africa summit which will take place on 18 July in Kliptown, Soweto in South Africa. Among the EU Member States, Germany (8.8 bn euro) was by far the biggest exporter to South Africa in 2012, followed by the United Kingdom (4.1 bn), the Netherlands (2.5 bn) and France (2 bn). The United Kingdom (7.5 bn) was the largest importer, followed by Germany (4.1 bn), the Netherlands (2.2 bn) and Belgium (1.9 bn) from South Africa.