In 2021, the EU members exported transport services worth €211.1 billion to countries outside of the EU (+36% compared with 2020). This exceeded the pre-pandemic 2019 figures (+14% compared with 2019). 

EU countries also exported other business services worth €265.5 to countries outside of the EU (+4% compared with 2020). This marks a near-recovery to 2019 figures, after the dip experienced in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related sanitary measures. 

‘Other business services’ was the largest category among the twelve service categories of international trade in services (25% of total extra-EU services exports and 33% of extra-EU imports in 2021) while ‘transport services’ was the second-largest category (20% of extra-EU services exports and 18% of extra-EU imports).

Transport by sea dominated extra-EU exports of transport services

The ‘transport services’ category can be further divided into four subcategories: 

• ‘sea transport’;
• ‘air transport’;
• ‘other modes of transport’; and
• ‘postal and courier services’.

Source dataset: bop_its6_det

Transport by sea dominated extra-EU exports of transport services for the entire period 2010-2021. In 2021, this amounted to €135.0 billion (+48% compared with 2020). The second largest contributor in 2021 was air transport (€36.1 billion; +18%), followed closely by other modes of transport (€35.9 billion; +18%). Air transport is the only mode of transport that did not recover to pre-pandemic levels; 2021 air transport exports were at 60% of the 2019 exports. Postal and courier services made a relatively small contribution to extra-EU exports of transport services (€4.1 billion; +18%). 

‘Technical, trade-related and other business services’ largest contributor to extra-EU exports of other business services

The ‘other business services’ category contains three subcategories: 

• ‘research and development (R&D) services’;
• ‘professional and management consulting services’; and
• ‘technical, trade-related and other business services’. 

Source dataset: bop_its6_det

For the entire period 2010-2021, the subcategory of ‘technical, trade-related and other business services’ was the largest contributor to extra-EU exports of ‘other business services’. In 2021, this subcategory contributed €125.7 billion (+9% compared with 2020). The second largest contributor in 2021 was the ‘professional and management consulting services’ subcategory (€92.9 billion; +11%), followed by ‘research and development (R&D) services’ (€46.8 billion; -16%). 

Source: Eurostat