• EU automotives exports in 2008: € 110 billion

• EU automotive imports in 2008: € 49 billion

• EU share of global automobile production: 27%

• Biggest markets for EU automotive exports: USA, Russia, Turkey, China

The European Automotive Industry is a leader in the global automotive market, with integrated automobile operations that combine research, design, development, production and sales. It has a dense worldwide network of joint ventures, production and assembly sites. EU exports of motor cars reached € 69 billion in 2008, whereas total automotive exports (including also buses, trucks, components, etc.) represent about 10% of the value of total EU exports.

Global production of automotives is broadly shared between Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and North America. South America, Africa and the Middle East also have some limited production. In Europe the automotive sector directly employs over 2 million people, and directly or indirectly supports about 10 million jobs in other industries. The health of the sector affects roughly 8% of the EU's active workforce. The industry, which is active in numerous Member States and operates a dense network of supplier industries, has been hardly hit by the global crisis. Total vehicle production and trade in 2009 has been lower than a year earlier, as a result of adjustment to the contraction in both domestic and foreign markets.

Fostering European automotive exports and investment through improved market access is an EU trade priority. The EU seeks to do this by negotiating the removal of barriers to automotive exports both multilaterally in the WTO and bilaterally with our major trade partners.

Although high tariff barriers still seriously hamper market access for EU exporters in Asia and India, it is often non-tariff barriers 'behind the border' that effectively ban EU vehicle exports to the South East Asian, Chinese, and South American markets. These barriers can include burdensome and discriminatory certification requirements, additional testing requirements for EU exports, excise and luxury taxes that add on to the sales price of EU vehicles. Local content requirements and tax incentives for local producers are often applied to the disadvantage of EU exporters. Strict rules for joint ventures or majority owned foreign companies also hamper the activities of European companies. These type of trade barriers are the focus of the European Commission in improving trading conditions for the EU automotive sector.

Further information on specific barriers facing the automobile industry can be found in the European Commission's Market Access Data Base. To find out more about how the EU supports the European automotive industry see the relevant pages on the website of EU Enterprise and Industry.

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