Like practically any product, print is traded across national borders. While the majority of print is produced and consumed domestically, a substantial portion is exported or imported. Lowering trade barriers helped in the past and especially the free trade within the European Union made cross-border trade easy.

The chart below is based on the commercial and publishing printing production values for the five largest countries in Europe in terms of print production and the value of print products imported and exported. Keep in mind that the export/import values of printed products do include the value added through publishing (and other processes that command a premium over the pure price of print and finishing) and are therefore higher than the plain print production value would be. Still, the ratio is of interest to see how much national markets depend on print imports and exports. This means with US$20 billion of print produced in Germany, about US$5 billion worth of print products is exported, while a value of about US$3 billion is imported. Exports would be about 26% of the print production value when disregarding the publishing value added.

Germany and the UK do export and import a relatively large amount of printed products, representing about a quarter of the total print production value. France, Spain, and Italy export noticeably less compared to their print industry size (around 11% to 14%). For most of the large countries, imports range around the 15% mark of the print production value. The exception is Italy, which imports noticeably less than the other four countries. Again, the production value and trade revenue numbers are not directly comparable, but give an idea of how active a country is in exporting and importing print products in relation to its size.