Dutch Trade in Facts and Figures 2023: Exports, imports and investment – An introduction

The whole world is affected by the war in Ukraine, not only geopolitically, but also in terms of inflation, food security and the economy. In a globalised world, everyone is connected and everyone is affected. As a small and open trading nation, the Netherlands is strongly connected to other countries and is therefore sensitive to international developments. In February of this year, the second year of the war in Ukraine began. Due to the war and the sanctions against Russia, Dutch trade with Russia and Ukraine has declined. Moreover, prices of especially imported mineral fuels and raw materials have skyrocketed, partly as a result of the war.

China and the EU have increasingly traded with each other since reducing reciprocal import tariffs in the 1990s. This has led to ever greater mutual interdependence, which entails benefits, but also risks. We have become more dependent on China and the country has therefore gained more geopolitical power (Aerts et al., 2022). Trade with China is an important topic of discussion when it comes to strategic dependencies. Dutch imports from China have risen sharply since the country gradually opened up to international cooperation two decades ago. In 2022, the Netherlands imported €64.2bn worth of goods from China, representing 9.5% of total goods imports. Some of the products for which the Netherlands and other European countries rely on imports from China are important for the green transition challenges Europe is facing. China is the Netherlands’ largest supplier of transitional goods (goods needed for the energy transition). The Netherlands mostly imports solar panels from China, but also lithium-ion batteries and magnets required for electric cars.

Production problems in China, sanctions against Russia, devastation in Ukraine, increased transport costs: these and many other factors may have a negative impact on Dutch trade in goods and services. Following the recovery from the coronavirus crisis and the first price increases in 2021, the value of Dutch goods trade rose again in 2022. Dutch goods exports increased in value by 30.4% year on year; total goods imports by 36.8%. This was due to the much higher prices of many goods, such as mineral fuels, food and materials. The size of trade volume also increased, but much less strongly. Adjusted for price increases, in 2022 the volume of imports and exports was up by around 2.3% on 2021. The value of re-exports, in which imported products are re-exported after virtually no processing, exceeded domestic exports for the first time in 2022. The increase was partly due to the substantial growth in the re-export value of mineral fuels, driven by the price increases. Nevertheless, this ratio between domestic exports and re-exports confirms the importance of the Netherlands as a gateway to the rest of Europe. Many goods enter Europe through the Netherlands and are transported to the hinterland by road or via inland shipping.

At the onset of the coronavirus crisis in 2020, Dutch trade in services showed a significant contraction. Recovery already started in 2021 and continued through 2022. The Netherlands exported almost €261bn worth of services in 2022; that is 22% more than in 2021 and exceeding the pre-pandemic 2019 level for the first time. Dutch importers bought €250bn worth of services abroad in 2022. That is 19% more than in the previous year and 16% more than in 2019. To a large extent, the higher value of services imports and exports consists of price increases. Expenditure by tourists in the Netherlands grew rapidly due to the lifting of many coronavirus-related travel restrictions. Conversely, there was also marked growth in expenditure by Dutch citizens during their stays abroad.

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Dutch Trade in Facts and Figures 2023: Exports, imports and investment has been developed by the Expertise Centre for Globalisation at Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and was commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It includes the latest trends and annually recurring key figures and indicators on the internationalisation of the Dutch economy and business economy. These key figures, indicators and descriptive trends offer rapid access to the most relevant data on international trade, enterprises that trade internationally and the role of the Netherlands in international production chains.

The publication consists of six descriptive chapters, illustrated with many figures, infographics and tables. These chapters present the key trends, figures and developments for 2022 and sometimes 2021 or earlier, and where possible we also look ahead to 2023. The datasets that form the basis of the figures, tables and infographics in these chapters are so extensive that they have not been included in full here; they can be accessed and downloaded from the home page of this publication. As in previous years, the publication begins with a dashboard showing a general overview of the important findings set out in the chapters. The dashboard and the chapters are in the following order:

• What are the latest developments (Chapter 2)?
• How many and which goods does the Netherlands trade and with which countries (Chapter 3)?
• How many and which services does the Netherlands trade and with which countries (Chapter 4)?
• How much is invested internationally by the Netherlands and in the Netherlands (Chapter 5)?
• What does the Netherlands earn from exports and how much employment is involved (Chapter 6)?
• How do goods and services from the rest of the world seep into the Dutch economy (Chapter 7)?

What has changed since the 2022 edition?

Several changes have been made to ‘Dutch Trade in Facts and Figures 2023’ compared to the previous edition. This year, for example, a change in methodology and a renewed link with data on business characteristics means that we do not include a separate chapter on business demographics of firms trading in goods and/or services (Chapter 5 in 2022 edition). In Chapter 5 about foreign investment and multinationals (Chapter 8 in 2022 edition), we distinguish between horizontal and vertical investment, which may explain much of the issue of trade and investment complementarity. Chapter 7, about the use of imports in the Dutch economy, has been expanded this year to include an analysis on the greenhouse gas footprint of Dutch imports. This allows us to examine in more detail the emissions in other countries which are generated due to Dutch imports of goods and services.

Current developments

Many of the figures in this publication concern the years up to and including 2022. However, the coronavirus pandemic, inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have made 2021, 2022 and 2023 atypical years. This is why, similar to the previous edition, a chapter has been dedicated to the latest developments which includes the most recently available figures. Chapter 2 is divided into five themes, namely: 1) trade developments related to the sanctions against Russia, 2) volume developments in goods trade, 3) the trade relationship between the Netherlands and China, 4) Dutch imports of raw materials and products for our green transition, and 5) developments in female entrepreneurship. Where possible, these topics also form a common thread throughout the other chapters.

References

Open references