Imports and Exports.

Tuesday, 31 May 2005

Ceisteanna (107, 108)

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

117 Mr. Durkan asked the Taoiseach the top ten trading countries with which this country trades in terms of exports and imports; the extent of the growth or otherwise of this trade with respect to each such country in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18459/05]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

118 Mr. Durkan asked the Taoiseach the economies which have shown greatest increase in terms of imports and exports with this country in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18460/05]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach (Mr. Kitt)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 117 and 118 together.

The following details relate solely to merchandise trade. The details with regard to imports are classified according to country of consignment as distinct from country of origin.

Tables 1 and 2 give imports and exports respectively of the top 12 countries in terms of value of trade for each of the last five years; 1999 is included also for reference purposes.

Tables 3 and 4 give similar details where the ranking is done on the basis of year-on-year increases in the value of trade for each country.

In the context of these tables the lower the value of "Rank" the more significant the actual trade value or the year-on-year increase as the case may be.

Table 1

Imports — Merchandise Value
Rank		1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
		€(000)	€(000)	€(000)	€(000)	€(000)	€(000)
1	Great Britain	15,331,573	19,008,683	21,493,713	22,112,229	15,899,021	16,834,754
2	United States	6,681,824	8,353,195	7,923,385	7,953,416	6,751,531	6,411,808
3	Germany	2,782,536	3,356,369	3,612,006	3,769,472	3,889,267	4,398,351
4	France		2,515,974	2,684,814	2,128,099
	Japan	2,033,687
	Netherlands					1,976,281	2,158,211
5	France	1,774,611				1,792,567	2,118,278
	Japan		2,128,632
	Netherlands			2,156,171	2,090,110
6	China						2,056,786
	Japan				1,351,628	1,549,662
	Netherlands		2,059,122
	Northern Ireland			1,489,040
	Singapore	1,717,021
7	China					1,422,406
	Japan			1,481,526
	Netherlands	1,546,157
	Northern Ireland				1,215,381		1,387,105
	Singapore		1,961,097
8	EU Unknown		1,484,516		1,145,605
	Japan						1,309,776
	Northern Ireland	1,374,708				1,279,947
	Singapore			1,323,374
9	Belgium				1,002,700
	EU Unknown	1,275,092		1,311,338
	Northern Ireland		1,479,755
	Norway					1,229,404	1,178,802
10	Belgium						1,153,803
	Italy		1,191,353	1,199,347
	Singapore				956,217	1,026,720
	Taiwan	825,930
11	Belgium		1,064,865	1,048,263		967,374
	Italy	808,667			908,533		982,979
12	Belgium	705,515
	Italy					925,404
	Norway		1,062,228
	Switzerland						956,647
	Taiwan			990,198	881,696

Table 2

Exports — Merchandise Value
Rank		1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
		€(000)	€(000)	€(000)	€(000)	€(000)	€(000)
1	Great Britain	13,247,558	17,123,851	20,793,808	20,886,658
	United States					16,939,245	16,519,949
2	Great Britain					13,458,262	13,502,526
	United States	10,336,842	14,227,805	15,694,396	16,509,438
3	Belgium				13,549,307	10,336,125	12,320,147
	Germany	8,013,810	9,428,588	11,682,508
4	France	5,646,394	6,357,411	5,541,568
	Germany				6,740,417	6,858,922	6,497,138
5	Belgium			4,446,178
	France				4,693,372	5,022,850	5,044,908
	Netherlands	4,190,297	4,705,719
6	Belgium	3,439,825	4,115,540
	Italy				3,601,523
	Netherlands			4,263,614		4,262,806	3,865,526
7	Italy	2,533,052	3,319,427	3,311,898		3,750,176	3,806,985
	Netherlands				3,511,632
8	Japan	1,958,960	3,122,860	3,261,074
	Switzerland				3,103,770	2,603,265	2,761,410
9	Japan				2,630,798
	Spain	1,842,740	2,126,907			2,363,260	2,436,082
	Switzerland			2,705,698
10	Japan					2,109,434	2,332,594
	Spain			2,297,985	2,242,629
	Switzerland	1,618,754	2,033,164
11	Northern Ireland	1,515,098	1,785,984	1,864,520	1,610,716	1,408,331	1,432,574
12	Sweden	1,096,185	1,336,973	1,355,024	1,203,052	1,164,111	1,113,809

Table 3

Imports — Merchandise year-on-year value increases
Rank		2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
		€(000)	€(000)	€(000)	€(000)	€(000)
1	China				543,706
	Great Britain	3,677,110	2,485,030	618,516		935,733
2	China			194,369		634,380
	Germany		255,637
	Norway				369,254
	United States	1,671,371
3	China		241,332
	France	741,363
	Germany			157,466		509,084
	Japan				198,034
4	Denmark				154,835
	France		168,840			325,711
	Germany	573,833
	Switzerland			80,959
5	Finland			67,375
	Germany				119,795
	Norway	528,006
	Switzerland		128,067			258,279
6	Austria			60,142
	Canada		127,547
	Netherlands	512,965
	Switzerland				83,286
	Taiwan					187,116
7	Belgium					186,429
	Italy	382,686
	Singapore				70,503
	Taiwan		115,312
	Turkey			40,141
8	Belgium	359,350
	Czech Republic			33,935
	Mexico		101,126
	Netherlands					181,930
	Northern Ireland				64,566
9	Canada				62,599
	Denmark	312,841
	Netherlands		97,049
	Northern Ireland					107,158
	United States			30,031
10	Costa Rica			25,162
	EU Unknown					105,041
	Hong Kong	259,088
	Hungary		84,813
	South Africa				45,578
11	Saudi Arabia			24,720
	South Korea	254,914
	Sweden					77,044
	Thailand		84,575
	Turkey				39,123
12	Brazil				29,214
	Hong Kong			24,677		69,853
	Romania		55,989
	Singapore	244,076

Table 4

Exports — Merchandise year-on-year value increases
Rank		2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
		€(000)	€(000)	€(000)	€(000)	€(000)
1	Belgium			9,103,129		1,984,022
	Great Britain		3,669,957
	Netherlands				751,174
	United States	3,890,963
2	Germany		2,253,920
	Great Britain	3,876,293
	Japan					223,160
	United States			815,042	429,807
3	France				329,478
	Germany	1,414,778
	Switzerland			398,072		158,145
	United States		1,466,591
4	Hong Kong				154,230	144,579
	Italy			289,625
	Japan	1,163,900
	Switzerland		672,534
5	China			200,194
	Italy	786,375			148,653
	Malaysia		386,790
	Singapore					132,163
6	Belgium		330,638
	France	711,017
	Israel					101,710
	Singapore			98,002
	Spain				120,631
7	Australia					88,455
	Germany				118,505
	Great Britain			92,850
	Mexico		297,558
	South Korea	684,710
8	Australia		254,101
	Belgium	675,715
	Mexico				61,984
	South Korea					78,190
	Unknown (Non-EU)			88,151
9	Canada		197,961
	China				46,316
	Netherlands	515,422
	Portugal			52,344
	Spain					72,822
10	India			24,321
	Switzerland	414,410
	Taiwan		177,457			69,919
	Thailand				33,073
11	China		171,957
	Italy					56,809
	Luxembourg				29,250
	Spain	284,167
	Turkey			17,366
12	Brazil				16,470
	China					54,234
	Hong Kong	284,123
	Russia			15,134
	Spain		171,078