China overtakes US, becomes European Union's biggest trading partner

China last year overtook the United States as the EU's biggest trading partner, the EU statistics agency Eurostat said on Monday. 

According to news agency AFP, Britain which is no longer part of the European Union, was the third-largest trading partner for the bloc, behind China and the United States, the agency said.

The supremacy of China came after it suffered from the coronavirus pandemic during the first quarter but recovered vigorously with consumption even exceeding its level of a year ago at the end of 2020, AFP said.

This helped drive sales of European products, particularly in the automobile and luxury goods