The European Union, China and the United States play the largest role in international trade, in terms of supplying products and as markets, and their trade relations largely determine the configuration of cargo flows in the international transport system.

In the first five months of 2020, the total value of mutual trade between the EU and China carried out by railway transport, increased by 21.22% year-on-year (47.42% more in May than in January 2020) . This development allowed rail transport to increase its share in the total trade volume from 2.83% in January-May 2019 to 3.47% in January-May 2020.