Import Dependencies: Where Does the EU Stand?

Faced with growing competition and geopolitical tensions, major economies worry about the risks associated with over-reliance on the Chinese economy. Using detailed product-level import data, we compare both large countries’ trade dependencies and the extent to which they supply their trading partners with products they depend on. China stands out for its low number of dependent products. While the United States and the European Union have a similar number of trade dependencies, this number is larger for Japan. The sources of dependencies are common to all four countries, and lie in four sectors: chemicals, electronics, pharmaceuticals and the steel industry. The EU is heavily exposed to China: 61% of its import dependencies come from that country. This potential vulnerability is partially offset by the fact that the EU is China’s leading supplier for a fourth of its 47 import-dependent products. China is three times as exposed to the EU as it is to the US. The EU dependence on China increased between 2019 and 2022 owing to both an increase in the number of European dependencies on China and a reduction in the number of Chinese dependencies on the EU.