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Spain Trading Partners
Ever since steps were taken in the 1960s to liberalize
Spain's economy, its trade with West European countries
had
steadily expanded. In 1973 EC countries accounted for 47.8
percent of Spain's exports, and they provided 37 percent
of its
imports. In the early 1980s, this ratio had not changed
significantly; in 1982 the respective figures were 48.6
and 31.8
percent. After Spain's accession to the EC, however, the
balance
shifted radically; in 1987, some 63.8 percent of Spain's
exports
went to the EC, while the EC supplied Spain with 54.6
percent of
its imports (see
table 11, Appendix). In 1987 France was
Spain's
most important trading customer, taking 18.9 percent of
its
merchandise exports; West Germany was the largest source
of
imports, supplying 16.1 percent of the total. The United
States,
which was Spain's single most important trading partner in
the
1970s, accounted for just over 8 percent of both imports
and
exports in 1987. Increased trade with the EC caused
Spain's
economic interaction with most of the rest of the world to
decline on a relative basis. This decline was most marked
with
regard to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries
(OPEC), which supplied Spain with 26.8 percent of its
imports and
received 5.3 percent of its exports in 1982, compared with
9.5
and 6.5 percent in 1987.
Data as of December 1988
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