China tops Italy's list of non-EU import partners in 2019

Rome: Italy imported more from China than from any other non-European Union (EU) countries in 2019, showed the annual "Blue Book" released by Italy's Customs and Monopolies Agency.

The list of the top non-EU countries from which Italy imported goods was headed by China, followed by the United States, Turkey, Russia, and Switzerland, according to the 600-page "Blue Book" released on Friday.

The United States bought around 45.1 billion euros (53.4 billion US dollars) worth of Italian exports last year, making it Italy's largest buyer outside the EU. It was followed by Switzerland, with 24.0 billion euros, and China with 13.8 billion euros. The totals were mostly accumulated before the United States raised import tariffs on an array of European products late last year.

Both lists excluded trade from EU member states, since trade within the 27-nation bloc is not taxed by customs agencies.

Overall, Italy's exports to non-EU countries continued the trend of increasing in terms of value last year, rising by 5.2 per cent compared to the previous year. Imports increased by 8.0 per cent year-on-year.

However, agency officials said those trends would be reversed when data is totaled for this year, due to the economic impacts of the global coronavirus outbreak. (1 euro = 1.18 US dollars).