Post Gazette: G20: EU Profile - The $18.4 trillion European Union economy is larger than the U.S. economy - by Michael Goldfarb

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G20: EU Profile - The $18.4 trillion European Union economy is larger than the U.S. economy

Though it might stretch the imagination of some American legislators and commentators, the European Union economy taken as a whole, at $18.4 trillion, according to the International Monetary Fund, is larger than the U.S. economy. It is as varied as that of America's. Heavy industry is concentrated in the core countries: Germany, Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg), France and the U.K. Italy and France are the world's leading manufacturers of luxury goods. The EU has a trade surplus with the U.S. (who doesn't?) worth more than $114 million. In the years immediately preceding the crash a third of the world's trade in goods and more than 40 percent of trade in services was between the U.S. and the EU. The EU has a trade deficit with China (who doesn't?) worth $241 million. Last year direct investment in China from EU member states totaled $5.9 billion.

At the G20 summit in Pittsburgh the EU will continue to press for closer scrutiny of banker pay and bonuses. But practically, Mr. Barroso speaks for no one. The EU, via the EC, negotiates trade issues on behalf of its members and it is very effective at doing so -- just ask any American trade negotiator who has taken a dispute with Europe to the WTO.