BRUSSELS, 25th August, 2026 (WAM) -- The EU has registered a trade deficit in goods for the first time in three years, as soaring energy imports outpaced an increase in the bloc’s exports.
Eurostat, Brussels’ official statistics office, reported on Tuesday that the EU recorded a deficit of €21.8 billion in the second quarter of this year, down from a surplus of €6.7 billion in the first quarter – the first deficit since the second quarter of 2023.
The decline was largely driven by rising oil and gas imports. The EU’s trade deficit for energy grew from €71.3 billion to €101.1 billion between the first and second quarters, with fuel imports from the US rising from €19.8 billion to €29.0 billion.
Efforts by European companies to avoid US President’s sweeping tariffs by ‘front-loading’ exports to America also contributed to the trade imbalance. EU exports to the US are down €43.7 billion relative to the first quarter of 2025, when its global trade surplus peaked at €51 billion.
Surging energy prices saw the EU’s total imports rise by €63.4 billion, dwarfing a €34.9 billion growth in exports that was largely driven by increases in chemicals and food sales.
Arthur Leichthammer, a policy fellow at the Jacques Delors Centre, a Berlin-based think tank, said the data is a “symptom” of Europe’s broader trade troubles, which have been compounded in recent years by ballooning cheap industrial exports from China.
The EU’s trade deficit with China, which has doubled over the past five years, rose by €2.9 billion to €103.3 billion from the first to the second quarter of this year.
The EU recorded especially large deficits in vehicles, machinery, and other manufactured goods in its trade with Beijing, which is the world’s second-biggest economy and the bloc’s second-largest trade partner after the US.
“When it comes to China, the data really follows the narrative we’ve been warning against – and it isn’t skewed by tariff front-loading, like in the US case,” Leichthammer said.
EU-China relations have also been exacerbated in recent years by Beijing’s close ties to Russia and its export controls on critical minerals, whose production China dominates.
Maroš Šefčovič, the EU trade commissioner, has demanded “tangible results” regarding China’s trade surplus and export restrictions before his scheduled visit to Beijing in October.