Start your business in Europe: Introduction

Total Foreign Affiliate Sales: Estimates for 2014. Source: Bureau for Economic Analyses

  The US and EU are each other’s most important commercial partners in services trade and investment. Profound transatlantic relations in services industries, provided by mutual investment flows, are the foundation for the global competitiveness of European and US services companies. Europe accounted for 37.6% of US services exports and 43% of imports in 2014.

  Most employees working for US companies outside the US are Europeans. Both the US and European affiliates employed 8.3 million workers.

  The Transatlantic Innovation Economy - R&D expenditures by US affiliates were greatest in Germany, France, the UK, Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland and Belgium. These 7 countries accounted for 85% of US R&D spending in Europe in 2013. (D.S. Hamilton and J.P. Quinlan in “The transatlantic economy 2016…” p. 6)

  Source: Bureau for Economic Analyses

  As far as UE relations with Canada are concerned, in 2013, the EU was Canada’s most important trading partner just after the US, accounting for 9.8 % of Canada’s total international trade. Canada’s exports to the European Union amounted in total almost $33.2 billion, while the value of merchandise imported from the EU was $53.2 billion. Exports of goods to the EU concerned (given by value): precious stones and metals ($10 billion), machinery ($3 billion), mineral ores ($2.3 billion), mineral fuels and oils ($2.3 billion), and aircraft and parts ($1.7 billion), whereas imports of goods from the EU concerned: machinery ($10.4 billion), vehicles and parts ($6.5 billion), pharmaceuticals ($5.6 billion), mineral fuels and oils ($4.6 billion), and electric machinery and equipment ($3.4 billion).

  EU international trade in goods with Canada by main product, 2015

  Eurostat 216/2016 – 30 October 2016

  Important value in the EU – Canada international trade relations are services. In 2013, Canada exported almost $14.5 billion worth of services to the EU (which is 17% of its total services exports) and imported $17.6 billion worth. 5 years ago - when the latest year for which sector-specific data is available - Canada’s most relevant services export to the EU were: management services ($1.8 billion), research and development (almost $1.3 billion), financial services ($1.3 billion), computer and information services ($1.2 billion), charges for the use of intellectual property ($598 million) and architectural, engineering and other technical services ($675 million).