MIAMI. - Dominican exports to the European Union grew by 20.5 percent last year to 801.4 million euros. That was the third-highest increase among Latin American countries, according to an analysis from Latin Business Chronicle of data from the official EU statistics agency Eurostat.

Meanwhile, Dominican imports from the EU grew by 15.3 percent to 1.0 billion euros. All in all, two-way trade reached 1.8 billion euros, which was 17.5 percent higher than in 2006.

As a result of the strong growth in exports to the EU, the Dominican Republic replaced Panama as the Latin America's 10th-largest exporter to the trading block. The boost in imports from the EU also lead the Dominican Republic to replace Costa Rica as the EU's 10th-largest market in Latin America.

The EU's total trade with Latin America grew by 11.5 percent last year to a new record of 160.0 billion euros (US$245.3 billion). EU exports to Latin America reached 71.4 billion euro, an increase of 12.8 percent. Meanwhile, EU imports from Latin America grew by 10.5 percent to 88.6 billion euro.

Brazil is the big winner in real terms when it comes to total trade, exports to the EU and imports from the EU, but when it comes to percentage growth, Paraguay was the big winner in terms of total trade and exports to the EU. Panama led the way in percentage growth of imports from the EU. Haiti was the big loser when it came to percentage growth of trade and imports from the EU, while Panama lost most when it came to exports to the EU, the analysis from Latin Business Chronicle shows.