The extent to which such production arrangements matter for the euro area trade balance can be seen by comparing data on trade in goods between the b.o.p and international  trade statistics.
This is possible because of an important methodological difference between the two datasets: b.o.p data are based on the concept of change in economic ownership, while trade statistics measure all goods crossing a border. In terms of the goods trade balance for the euro area, the gap between these two datasets has been growing over time, in particular since 2015 (Chart 3).