Integration of goods and services

Trade in goods and services is one of the key mechanisms fostering competition, consumer choice and the efficient allocation of resources in the Single Market.

This section measures the level of integration of trade in goods and services in the Single Market by looking at indicators at both national and EU levels.

EU trade integration in goods (levels)

The chart shows the percentage of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) represented by EU trade in goods with other EU countries (average of imports and exports). It reveals how deeply individual EU countries’ economies are integrated into the EU economy.

Sources: Eurostat, bop_its6_det; bop_c6_a; nama_10_gdp; Comext ds-045409  

EU trade integration in services (levels)

The chart shows the percentage of a country’s GDP represented by EU trade in services (excluding financial and transport services) with other EU countries (average of imports and exports). The chart confirms that the integration of EU countries’ economies in services is much less advanced compared with goods, even though services make up a much larger part of GDP.

Sources: Eurostat, bop_its6_det; bop_c6_a; nama_10_gdp; Comext ds-045409  

Trends in trade within the EU and with the rest of the world

This indicator measures Single Market integration by the development of trade within the EU and with the rest of the world over time. Trade is defined as the average between imports and exports.

Exports of goods to other EU countries by SMEs in the industrial sector (% of SMEs)

This indicator measures the share of SMEs reporting dispatches of goods to other EU countries, based on value added tax (VAT) data. The share is calculated by dividing the number of exporting SMEs (nominator) by the total number of SMEs (denominator). Data only cover the industrial sector.

Higher shares mean that a bigger number of SMEs can trade across borders. As these values are based on VAT data, they are at the conservative end and are likely to underestimate the real share of exporting SMEs.

Source: European Commission; Eurostat ext_tec01 

Integration in the Single Market and in the rest of the world: trade over GDP

The chart shows the trend in the EU’s trade flows in goods and services within the EU and with the rest of the world as a share of total EU GDP since 1993. Trade is measured by the average of imports and exports. The vertical lines denote breaks in the time series due to changes in the number of countries in the Single Market.

Source: Eurostat [bop_c6_a, bop_its_deth, bop_its_det, bop_its6_det, COMEXT]

Integration in the Single Market and in the rest of the world: international comparisons

This chart shows trade flows in goods (2023) and services (2021) of several economic areas, within their own area and with the rest of the world, as a share of their respective GDP.

Sources: Eurostat, World Bank World Development Indicators, UN Comtrade, US Freight Analysis Network, WTO Balanced International Trade in Services

Price convergence

These charts show the coefficient of variation of prices (in purchasing power parity GDP) for the EU. This is an indicator of price dispersion, i.e. how much prices vary, across EU countries. The lower the coefficient, the smaller the differences. Since the establishment of the Single Market, price differences have nearly halved.

Source: Eurostat

This graph shows the concentration of State aid relative to the concentration of GDP, across the EU Member States over time. The calculation is based on the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), a common measure of distribution concentration. The HHI values are compared by calculating a ratio: If the HHI for State aid divided by the HHI for GDP exceeds 100%, it indicates that State aid is more concentrated than GDP (suggesting that aid might not be aligned proportionally with the economic output of each country). Conversely, a ratio below 100% indicates that State aid is less concentrated than GDP. 

Source: European Commission