INS trade data: Italy is now Tunisia's biggest EU supplier, and the bilateral surplus has halved

According to the country-by-country annex to the foreign trade note the Institut National de la Statistique published on July 12, Tunisian imports from Italy reached 5.547 billion dinars in the first half of 2026, up 13.7 percent year on year, giving Italy 11.7 percent of all imports, ahead of France on 11.5 percent and behind only China on 12.3 percent. Exports to Italy grew more slowly, 5.5 percent to 5.880 billion dinars, so Tunisia's bilateral surplus shrank from nearly 699 million dinars a year earlier to about 333 million. The EU still takes 70.4 percent of Tunisian exports and supplies 44.9 percent of imports, and the INS attributes the widening overall trade deficit mainly to energy.

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