On the import side both countries were even more important, and China accounted for almost 19% of all imports to the EU. Russia’s share was 10.5%. On the export side only the US was a more important trading partner than China, and on the import side China was clearly the most important trading partner, while the US and Russian shares were practically equal.
It is obvious that we have become more dependent on the large emerging economies, especially China and Russia. Given the growing importance of both Russia and China, it is interesting that within both the EU, and also the euro area, different countries still have different economic ties with these two emerging giants. Partially these differences are driven by geography, partly by economic structure.