Berlin (Reuters)-The United States depend more on imports of the European Union than it is supposed, with the bloc surpassing China both in total value and number of products sold to Americans, according to a study by the IW Economic Institute of Germany.
This dependence has grown significantly over the past 15 years, with the number of product groups in which at least 50% of US imports have come from the EU increasing to over 3,100 last year, compared to over 2,600 in 2010, according to IW.
The findings suggest that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, could have had more strength than showed tariff negotiations with Washington, which led to the imposition of a 15% basic rate on most EU products, according to IW.
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The total amount of imports of these goods – which include chemicals, machinery and electrical equipment – reached $ 287 billion, almost 2.5 times more than in 2010.
By comparison, last year, China was responsible for 2,925 of these product groups, with a total amount of $ 247 billion.
US dependence on China has decreased significantly over time over the course of an obvious process of risk reduction, IW said.
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EU products with consistently high import participation will probably be difficult to replace in the short term, a factor that the block should keep in mind if commercial tensions increase, IW said.
As a last resort, the EU could restrict the export of critical products to the US economy, the institute said.
Although commercial data themselves cannot fully capture how essential these products are for US buyers, the study “can be used to make it clear to Americans that if they continue to increase tariffs, they will be shot in their own foot,” said co -author Sama Sultan.
