Importance of the European Union in the International Trade in Goods

One of the areas on which the global financial and economic crisis has strongly left its mark is the international trade in goods. In this context, the participation of the European Union in the international trade in the recent years has deeply declined and the prospects for the trade recovery of this group are not favorable. The maintenance of some risk factors in the world economy is the basis of the pessimistic forecasts. This paper reflects the evolution of the export and import flows of the European Union since the years leading up to the present economic crisis as well as the factors that contributed to the decrease of the EU trade competitiveness.