To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world have taken a variety of restrictive measures. March 2020 figures already show their significant impact on international trade in goods.
In March 2020, the total extra-EU trade (imports + exports) fell from €252 billion to €228 billion compared with January 2020.

This pattern was observed for exports with all five main trade partners, with highest trade decreases with Switzerland (-8.5%) and China (-7.1%), followed by Russia (-6.8%), the United Kingdom (-6.2%) and the United States (-4.2%).
Imports from these five main partners also fell over this period. However, for Switzerland (-1.2%) and the United States (-2.6%) the decrease was notably smaller than for Russia (-8.2%), China (-10.9%) and especially the United Kingdom (-17.0%).

Correspondingly, the total trade with the United Kingdom (-10.4%) and China (-9.6%) dropped the most among these five trade partners (in relative terms), while smaller decreases were observed for trade with the United States (-3.6%), Switzerland (-5.3%) and Russia (-7.6%). Among the EU’s 11 main trade partners, Turkey (-13.0%), India (-11.8%) and Norway (-11.7%) recorded the highest drops in total trade, while trade with South Korea only fell by 1.9%.

In March 2020, EU recorded an increase in trade balance with 8 of its 11 main trade partners compared with January 2020, with highest increases observed with China (+€2.1 billion) and the United Kingdom (+€1.2 billion). Among the EU’s 11 main trade partners, the trade balance only fell for Turkey (-€0.2 billion), the United States (-€0.9 billion) and Switzerland (-€1.0 billion).
 
Note: The European Union (EU) includes 27 Member States. The United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January 2020.