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Trade Between the U.S. and EU Is Massive. We Break It Down.

Trump’s tariff threats against European Union hit a bloc that comprises the single-largest U.S. trade partner

President Trump is raising new trade-war threats against Europe, and costs to move products like cars, pharmaceutical products and airplane parts across the Atlantic are at stake.

Trump over the weekend said the U.S. would impose 30% tariffs on the European Union effective Aug. 1, which would replace existing 10% blanket tariffs on most goods from the EU. This follows the president’s earlier threats to impose levies of 20% and 50% against the EU.

How much does U.S.-EU trade matter?

While Mexico ranks as the largest single-country U.S. trading partner, the EU as a 27-nation bloc is larger, and EU trade policy is handled centrally. In 2024, the U.S. imported about $606 billion in goods from the EU and exported around $370 billion. This kind of imbalance is a major sticking point for Trump as he tries to use tariffs to revamp U.S. manufacturing.

Trade in goods and services with the EU accounted for around 4.9% of U.S. gross domestic product in 2024, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data. That means trade with Europe is an even bigger part of the U.S. economy than trade with China, which accounted for 2.2% of U.S. GDP last year.

What major products does the U.S. import from the EU?

Pharmaceuticals are the single largest EU-produced product shipped to the U.S., totaling $127 billion in 2024. Europe is home to pharma giants like Bayer and Sanofi, but that is only part of the story. A number of U.S. pharma companies have factories in Ireland, where taxes are low. In 2024, Ireland exported more goods to the U.S. than Italy and France.

Other top imports from Europe are cars ($45.2 billion) and various types of machinery. The U.S. also bought $5.4 billion worth of wine and $4.4 billion worth of perfume from the EU last year.

What are the top goods exports to the EU?

Europe is a big buyer of U.S. oil, gas, cars, airplanes—and human blood products like plasma. The U.S. shipped $32.3 billion worth of airplanes and airplane parts, plus $12.4 billion worth of vehicles to the EU. Many of the cars shipped across the Atlantic are European brands, like BMWs and Mercedes made in American factories.

The U.S. sent $5.2 billion in blood products to the EU last year.

How do services factor in?

While the U.S. ran a goods-trade deficit of $235.6 billion with the EU in 2024, including services shrinks that deficit to $161 billion, according to BEA data.

Counting services isn’t as easy as counting goods—work like business consulting and banking doesn’t go through ports and customs. The U.S. says it exported about $277 billion in services to the EU last year and imported $201 billion in 2024. The EU has hinted in the past that it might go after U.S. tech companies—a major source of services exports—in retaliation for tariffs.

How did the last U.S.-EU trade war end?

In 2018, during his first term, Trump slapped 10% tariffs on aluminum and 25% tariffs on steel. The official justification: national security. The EU hit back with tariffs on more than $3 billion worth of U.S. exports, including jeans, bourbon and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

In 2021, the Biden administration reached a deal with the EU that effectively ended the spat. The U.S. agreed to let a quota of European steel and aluminum into the country duty-free, and in return the EU suspended its retaliatory tariffs.

Saudi Arabia to boost renewable energy with $8bn investment

ACWA Power leads consortium that will build five solar and two wind projects in the kingdom

A consortium led by Saudi utilities giant ACWA Power is to invest $8.3bn to build 15 gigawatts of solar and wind farms in the kingdom as it accelerates its push into renewables.

ACWA Power, owned by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, is joined by Aramco Power, part of Saudi Aramco, in the consortium that has signed power purchase agreements with the state-owned electricity buyer to build five solar and two wind projects in four regions across the kingdom.

The deals mark a significant step forward in the country’s ambition to generate half of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 as part of a plan launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify the Saudi economy away from its dependence on oil revenues. The world’s biggest oil exporter also wants to cut its carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2060.

The kingdom had about 4.34 gigawatts of solar capacity as of the end of 2024, according to the Energy Institute’s latest Statistical Review of World Energy, but wants to have up to 130GW of solar and wind capacity by the end of the decade.

A rough rule of thumb is that one gigawatt can potentially supply electricity for about 1mn homes. Almost all of Saudi Arabia’s electricity is currently supplied by oil and gas-fired power plants.

The Saudi government described the agreements as “among the world’s largest” at prices that are “the lowest globally”, according to an official statement. It went on to say that they were a result of “the efficiency of the kingdom’s financing and development models and the growing confidence in the kingdom’s investment environment”.

Prince Mohammed’s older half-brother Prince Abdulaziz, who serves as energy minister, attended the signing ceremony for the deals in Riyadh on Sunday. The Water and Electricity Holding Co, controlled by the Public Investment Fund, is part of the consortium.

Solar power is growing rapidly in the Middle East thanks to its abundant sun and the falling cost of solar panels, and as Gulf countries look to free up more oil and gas for export.

The Financial Times reported in January that, from a low base, the Middle East is the fastest growing region outside of China in terms of adding new renewable electricity capacity.

The central Riyadh region will have two solar and two wind projects, while the remaining solar projects will be in the regions of Mecca and Medina, as well as Aseer province. The projects should be up and running by 2028, according to a joint statement from ACWA Power and partners.

ACWA Power is one of the largest renewable energy companies in the Middle East, with operations in 14 countries across the region, Africa and Asia. The company has recently announced its entry in China as it seeks to expand its footprint despite concerns over trade tensions with the US.

“We decided to enter China because it’s the biggest market in the world in renewables, by far. So it makes sense when you want to grow to do it where there is growth,” chief executive Marco Arcelli told the FT this year.