Portugal's foreign trade balance has regularly shown a heavy deficit, which it finances through net receipts from tourism, remittances from Portuguese workers abroad, and net transfers from the EU.

The major export commodities of Portugal are clothing and footwear (11.6%), motor vehicles (9.1%), and textiles (6.9%). Other exports include electrical distributing equipment (4.1%), paper products (3.2%), and refined petroleum products (1.9%).