Bi-lateral economic relations between the United States and Portugal are at “an all-time high”, said Portugal’s Minister of the Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, at a lunch organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Portugal recently.
The minister said that Portugal had become a much more open and export-orientated economy with a volume of trade compared to GDP that has gone from 60% to 90% in the past few years and trade relations with the United States have been part of that.
Discussing the current standing of United States-Portuguese relations, which he referred to as at a “high-point in our economic history”, the minister said a significant part of Portugal’s economic success in recent years has been based on exports growth and on the trade relations between the two countries.
“If you look at the trade relations between the US and Portugal over the last five years, the growth has been tremendous, we practically doubled our volume of trade. We have a trade surplus and truly the United States has been a significant part of the way we have grown out of a crisis,” said Pedro Siza Vieira.
The US is currently Portugal’s biggest trading partner, in fifth place after its top European trading partners UK, Spain, France and Germany (US$3.4 billion or 5% of all trade).
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