Western Europe has overtaken North America as the No. 1 trade destination for Connecticut goods, according to a new survey released by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association.

The International Trade Survey of Connecticut Businesses, released this week and available at www.cbia.com, also showed that the percentage of Connecticut companies saying they now export products has risen from 53 percent to 79 percent over the past eight years.

Nearly 90 percent of Connecticut businesses that trade internationally are midsize or smaller, meaning they have 500 or fewer employees.

"With more than 95 percent of the world's consumers living outside of the United States, exporting is key to our economic competitiveness," Pete Gioia, an economist and CBIA vice president, said in a statement.

Connecticut ranks 18th among all states in per-capita trade. Thirty-two percent of the state's trade is with Western Europe, while North America accounts for 26 percent of the export markets and the Pacific Rim and norther Asia (principally China, Japan and Taiwan) ringing up 18 percent of foreign sales.

Asia is an area where state companies could foresee continued growth, with 26 percent of them saying they expect to look eastward over the next three years, compared to only 18 percent reporting Asian trade ties today.

The most common barriers to entering foreign markets were lack of knowledge about how to enter the market, cost competition, payment worries and regulatory barriers or trade difficulties.

l.howard@theday.com

Twitter: @KingstonLeeHow