Trade Relations

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Ceisteanna (65)

Bernard Durkan

Ceist:

65. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which trade has increased or improved between Ireland and other EU countries and non EU countries in each of the past three years to date; the areas that have indicated greatest potential for further expansion in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45228/12]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade

Despite a difficult global economic environment, Ireland’s total trade in goods increased in each of the past three years. The total value of merchandise exports in 2011 was €91,595m, up 2.4% from 2010, while merchandise imports were valued at €48,286m, up 6% on 2010. This resulted in a merchandise trade surplus of €43,309m. For the first eight months of 2012 merchandise exports amounted to €62,493 million and imports to €32,591 million representing a trade surplus of €29,902 million. Services exports also increased last year, from €74.3bn in 2010 to €81.4bn in 2011. Below is a table listing total merchandise trade figures for the years 2009 to 2011. As the Deputy will note, the value of this trade increased in 152 of the 223 places listed over the three year period. Total trade with our EU partners increased to €80,432million from €76,737 in 2010.

While the USA, UK and other EU partners continue to be key markets for Ireland, the Government is also fully committed to developing and expanding engagement with key high potential markets. The BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa- are among the 27 priority markets identified in the Government Trade Strategy and, by the end of this year, all five countries will have received Minister- led trade missions in accordance with the programme for 2012.

In addition, there is also a focus on other emerging markets, such as Turkey and markets in South East Asia and the Gulf. Furthermore, the Africa Strategy, launched in September 2011, acknowledges the significant progress in terms of economic and social development taking place throughout the continent. It recognises that demand for goods and services is growing from African countries and that Irish-based companies are well placed to play a greater role with the assistance of my Department, our Embassy network and State Agencies.

Bilateral Trade - Figures in €000	2009	2010	2011
Afghanistan	6,858	6,903	7,809
Albania	5,877	5,508	8,848
Algeria	61,333	59,714	86,642
American Samoa	5	5	73
Andorra	6,219	6,952	8,680
Angola	6,330	11,633	14,442
Anguilla	642	287	125
Antigua and Barbuda	201	106	42
Argentina	134,466	165,269	220,218
Armenia	318	604	699
Aruba	6	29	183
Australia*	833,224	894,299	814,983
Austria*	507,887	477,267	478,397
Azerbaijan	2,517	4,929	3,867
Bahamas	6,261	7,927	9,396
Bahrain	29,013	31,328	47,013
Bangladesh	72,591	102,344	114,729
Barbados	2,171	1,063	981
Belarus	7,170	6,140	4,793
Belgium*	15,568,898	14,615,075	14,395,276
Belize	11,105	9,588	9,402
Benin	5,332	5,397	4,560
Bermuda	119,777	521	783
Bhutan	0	0	2
Bolivia	1,131	2,806	5,031
Bosnia & Herzegovina	12,862	10,864	14,307
Botswana	1,361	2,626	1,687
Brazil*	370,033	425,979	494,692
British Indian Ocean Territory	6	21	18
British Virgin Islands	75	179	1,074
Brunei	996	2,393	1,316
Bulgaria	50,479	56,685	69,599
Burkina Faso	1,385	1,660	3,010
Burma	440	574	458
Burundi	71	129	68
Cambodia	21,358	21,684	26,684
Cameroon	21,179	24,669	31,639
Canada*	822,106	812,444	883,605
Cape Verde	969	155	60
Cayman Islands	514	738	389
Central African Rep	441	269	142
Ceuta	193	433	425
Chad	8,717	2,845	1,011
Chile	79,392	94,630	109,056
China*	5,275,096	5,249,917	5,034,027
Christmas Island	0	95	877
Cocos Islands	0	27	77
Colombia	31,432	33,201	43,594
Comoros	187	464	177
Congo	7,521	8,892	14,842
Congo (Dem Rep)	14,926	25,969	32,981
Cook Islands	295	4	8
Costa Rica	76,422	112,863	54,918
Croatia	57,575	47,076	44,278
Cuba	985	2,077	459
Cyprus	50,833	34,628	27,555
Czech Republic*	406,625	629,470	700,799
Denmark*	1,160,220	1,191,616	1,069,693
Djibouti	138	119	416
Dominica	160	183	191
Dominican Republic	14,617	15,709	17,124
Ecuador	8,740	10,681	11,012
Egypt	133,060	148,920	163,380
El Salvador	1,946	8,341	4,740
Equatorial Guinea	3	346	795
Eritrea	54	499	58
Estonia	48,200	25,516	26,498
Ethiopia	9,362	21,165	16,737
Falkland Islands	180	54	195
Faroe Islands	3,228	2,025	1,608
Fiji	2,289	2,330	1,949
Finland	464,614	480,407	425,762
France*	6,780,827	6,324,655	6,980,654
French Polynesia	3,231	3,659	1,590
French Southern Terr	n/a	n/a	7
Gabon	5,350	4,290	8,718
Gambia	186	344	850
Georgia	4,241	5,781	7,477
Germany*	7,833,403	9,847,489	10,092,307
Ghana	38,686	46,260	52,308
Gibraltar	2,966	1,687	1,814
Great Britain*	24,887,807	26,259,200	28,569,516
Greece	408,298	335,912	344,886
Greenland	10	41	7
Grenada	234	268	333
Guam	204	441	435
Guatemala	5,242	7,461	7,618
Guinea	69,930	100,381	90,551
Guinea-Bissau	8	2	15
Guyana	1,193	1,127	2,688
Haiti	1,528	2,939	2,833
Heard Island	1	1	284
Holy See	6	0	8
Honduras	2,279	4,682	8,673
Hungary	429,592	364,852	324,923
Iceland	23,145	25,231	24,388
India*	442,802	462,984	576,417
Indonesia	130,088	122,863	139,981
Iran	46,718	86,935	66,342
Iraq	33,413	47,524	38,677
Israel	278,867	322,429	542,817
Italy*	3,683,857	3,489,157	3,820,780
Ivory Coast	4,169	5,220	5,927
Jamaica	3,731	5,914	4,785
Japan*	2,390,474	2,551,888	2,538,740
Jordan	49,601	59,924	57,369
Kazakhstan	20,494	21,252	30,491
Kenya	24,273	28,863	34,433
Kiribati	2	0	89
Kosovo	1,210	1,609	360
Kuwait	99,678	63,959	99,625
Kyrgyz Republic	280	125	242
Laos	1,676	4,761	4,453
Latvia	58,863	67,161	93,222
Lebanon	34,964	59,264	53,874
Lesotho	233	254	140
Liberia	1,205	1,424	2,446
Libya	284,599	378,841	97,961
Liechtenstein	1,010	897	1,517
Lithuania	45,850	74,023	92,483
Luxembourg	165,498	103,682	122,964
Macedonia	13,524	11,559	8,504
Madagascar	829	551	824
Malawi	4,546	4,036	4,181
Malaysia*	1,121,353	898,204	615,262
Maldives	213	319	3,092
Mali	8,887	11,719	18,564
Malta	27,010	41,401	34,243
Mauritania	366	957	1,437
Mauritius	10,485	10,915	13,445
Mayotte	432	1,744	4,563
Melilla	269	200	100
Mexico	638,173	697,648	795,414
Micronesia	25	1	7
Moldova	2,242	3,103	3,138
Mongolia	363	679	4,295
Montenegro	2,491	268	148
Montserrat	3	89	53
Morocco	81,731	81,648	86,551
Mozambique	3,807	4,350	2,265
Namibia	1,311	699	3,987
Nauru	108	2,199	448
Nepal	270	281	366
Netherlands*	5,134,495	5,316,902	5,565,577
Netherlands Antilles	1,074	795	499
New Caledonia	2,610	2,446	4,522
New Zealand	104,410	117,006	114,512
Nicaragua	3,485	6,049	10,789
Niger	1,533	4,470	236
Nigeria	205,693	206,215	627,992
Norfolk Island	1	0	5
North Korea	731	1,407	1,047
North Mariana Is	15	1	134
Norway	1,341,215	1,709,809	1,572,032
Palestine	485	3,059	734
Oman	28,816	45,163	47,055
Pakistan	70,097	63,643	69,295
Panama	14,126	13,889	12,715
Papua New Guinea	9,046	10,971	1,494
Paraguay	319	949	2,234
Peru	18,289	25,176	28,623
Philippines	165,038	143,843	119,887
Pitcairn Islands	26	6	1
Poland*	1,010,015	912,348	900,497
Portugal	499,626	524,275	577,832
Qatar	29,997	36,384	45,034
Romania	327,759	357,298	462,091
Russian Federation*	326,025	532,468	627,862
Rwanda	1,238	457	815
Saint Helena	230	376	67
Samoa	467	239	426
San Marino	768	633	445
Sao Tome & Principe	49	19	12
Saudi Arabia*	403,435	510,300	526,760
Senegal	6,619	31,268	46,694
Serbia	43,343	48,443	52,955
Seychelles	1,224	1,648	1,825
Sierra Leone	1,701	2,076	3,292
Singapore*	1,021,589	1,058,188	854,449
Slovakia	89,422	109,834	112,806
Slovenia	35,655	60,130	37,396
Solomon Islands	4	33	1
Somalia	199	534	652
South Africa*	321,784	369,913	440,105
South Korea*	631,494	601,060	684,482
Spain*	4,042,121	4,024,697	3,730,963
Sri Lanka	44,484	55,133	55,057
St Kitts and Nevis	151	225	142
St Lucia	299	316	407
St Vincent	458	278	261
Sudan	12,889	16,967	13,843
Suriname	428	735	401
Swaziland	1,558	803	2,958
Sweden*	1,071,291	1,013,058	1,375,455
Switzerland*	2,896,848	4,404,161	4,446,945
Syria	25,246	28,827	26,552
Taiwan	531,732	353,388	375,559
Tajikistan	2	123	16
Tanzania United Rep	11,151	13,514	13,223
Thailand	424,216	383,032	386,411
Timor-Leste	2	2	4
Togo	3,163	6,095	10,464
Tokelau Islands	2,981	2,154	3,245
Tonga	30	5	67
Trinidad and Tobago	13,303	12,767	13,293
Tunisia	24,914	32,126	27,947
Turkey	641,627	686,221	750,739
Turkmenistan	853	487	3,901
Turks & Caicos Is	64	41	128
Uganda	6,813	7,717	10,311
Ukraine	38,633	34,119	78,016
United Arab Emirates*	291,069	379,351	313,788
United States*	25,422,765	27,188,555	27,509,539
Uruguay	15,327	16,740	13,458
US Minor Islands	77	144	508
US Virgin Islands	814	742	280
Uzbekistan	796	679	1,248
Vanuatu	9	110	42
Venezuela	39,723	47,418	51,270
Vietnam	124,529	123,047	147,840
Yemen	4,638	13,584	29,916
Zambia	6,545	14,200	16,812

* Priority markets identified under the Government’s Trade Strategy