ISTANBUL

The EU’s high-tech imports reached €478 billion ($527.1 billion), slightly down by 1% compared to 2022, according to data from the regional statistical bureau on Friday.

China and the US accounted for over half of the EU’s high-tech imports last year, with €155 billion (32%) and €108 billion (23%), respectively, Eurostat said.

Other large high-tech exporters to the EU were “Switzerland (7%; €31 billion), Taiwan (6%; €28 billion) and the UK and Vietnam (each 4%; €20 and €19 billion, respectively),” said Eurostat.

Electronics-telecommunications products made up the largest amount of high-tech imports from non-EU nations at 39%, the biggest source of these imports being China.

Some 73% of Vietnamese imports to the EU at €14 billion were electronics-telecommunications products, followed by Taiwan and China at 58% each, valued at €16 billion and €86 billion, respectively.

Computers, office machines, and pharmacy products accounted for 15% of all high-tech imports into the EU with China and the US making up a large portion of the sources of these products.

As for EU high-tech exports, the figure rose 3% year-on-year to €461 billion, with the US accounting for 28% of EU exports at €128 billion, followed by China with 11% at €49 billion, and Japan and Türkiye with 3% at €15 billion and €14 billion, respectively.

Among high-tech exports from the EU to non-EU nations, pharmacy products made up 30%, the largest share, with the US being the largest recipient, followed by electronics-telecommunications products at 20% and aerospace exports at 18%, with the US and China being the leader partners in these sectors.

While pharmacy was the largest export category for Switzerland and the US, accounting for 48% of high-tech exports at €14 billion and €61 billion, respectively, electronics-telecommunications was the largest export category for China, making up 31% of high-tech exports at €15 billion.

As for Türkiye, the largest export category was aerospace with 35% of high-tech exports, valued at €5 billion, the data showed.