Dutch Trade in Facts and Figures 2024: Exports, imports and investment – An introduction

Geopolitical shocks continue to have a major impact on the international trading system worldwide. For instance, the United States and China are embroiled in fierce economic competition, driven by protectionist policies and trade rules in an attempt to change value chains. The ongoing war in Ukraine is a prime example of the major impact of geopolitical events on global trade: severe trade sanctions back and forth and a complete restructuring of the European energy and raw materials market. The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza creates great instability in a region that lies at the heart of many global supply networks, and is yet another example of a geopolitical shock affecting global trade.

With Brexit, the COVID19-crisis, and related worldwide lockdowns and disruptions to production chains still fresh in our memory, these geopolitical events further fuel the debate on unbridled globalisation. Calls for less dependence on foreign countries, when it comes to medicinal products, energy and critical raw materials, for example, are getting increasingly louder. And, in public debates, terms such as ‘offshoring’ and ‘outsourcing’ are increasingly being replaced by ‘re-shoring’, ‘near-shoring’, ‘friend-shoring’ and ‘decoupling’ (UNCTAD, 2023; WTO, 2023). The coming years will test to what extent Dutch enterprises implement this strategy. Globally, enterprises increasingly seem to be exploring options for building parallel supply chains to become more resilient (The Economist, 2024). At the same time, geopolitical events are not the only reason for this changing mindset. Global poverty and inequality, the effects of climate change, as well as technological developments, particularly in the area of artificial intelligence, also contribute to a shifting narrative about globalisation (The Economist, 2024; WTO, 2023).

Following two years of unprecedented growth, the Dutch import and export value of goods dropped in 2023. This was partly because soaring inflation eased and prices stabilised. However, that is not the full story. The trade volume of Dutch goods trade also dropped in 2023. This applied to both imports and exports. At the same time, the Dutch trade in services grew to a record high. Never before did our country import and export more services than in 2023. Increased service prices were primarily responsible for this. On a global scale, the Netherlands continues to be a key trading partner both in terms of goods and services. The Netherlands steadily maintains its position in the top-ten countries of the different trade flows.

The Netherlands is a trading nation par excellence. And that trade has served our country well. Earnings from domestic exports, re-exports and services amounted to €337 billion for the Netherlands in 2022, which accounted for over 35% of Dutch GDP. And as much as 31.4% of Dutch employment was related to exports. This corresponds to 2.6 million full-time jobs, both directly or indirectly related to Dutch exports of goods and services.

Not everything that the Netherlands imports is actually intended for the Dutch market. Our country serves as a major hub in global trade, which makes it central to the European hinterland. For example, more than half of goods imports were destined for re-exports in 2022. With a share of two-thirds, the intermediate goods imports, which are further processed by enterprises in the Netherlands, also have other countries as the final destination. In the period between 2019 and 2022, the Dutch economy earned relatively less per euro from domestic exports and re-exports. This can be explained by the fact that relatively more imports were used to realise the exports, mainly due to price increases of imported goods. Earnings per euro of exports of services actually increased slightly over the same period.

The Dutch economy and society thus benefit greatly from international trade. We also depend heavily on the imports of goods. Certain raw materials and products are either unavailable or not sufficiently available in the Netherlands. However, there is a downside to this. In 2020, the global land use footprint of Dutch imports was about thirteen times the surface area of the Netherlands. Even excluding re-exports, the land use footprint was still nearly four times the surface area of the Netherlands. This is mostly cropland. The material footprint and the greenhouse gas footprint of Dutch imports amounted to 1,687 billion kilograms and 505 billion kilograms of CO₂ equivalents respectively.

Internationalisation and foreign direct investment are interconnected. They ensure exchange of capital and knowledge between economies, which generally benefits output and prosperity in both countries. The Netherlands plays a major role in this and ranks among the global leaders when it comes to inward and outward investments. The Netherlands invests heavily in the United Kingdom and the United States, and also receives many investments from those countries. Even though Dutch or foreign multinationals make up only two percent of the Dutch business economy, they did create 19% and 18% of employment, respectively, in our country in 2022. Germany continues to be the favourite investment country for Dutch-owned multinationals.

The table below shows a selection of key figures, to be further discussed in this publication. The latest news and reports in the field of globalisation, such as the Internationalisation Monitor, can be found in our dossier.

	Value
	million euros
Gross domestic product (2023*)
GDP
In real prices	1,034,086
International trade in goods (2023*)
Exports
Total	686,623
of which:
Germany	155,645
Belgium	79,586
France	55,381
UK	43,074
US	34,772
Italy	28,417
Spain	22,078
Poland	19,322
China	18,112
Sweden	14,843
Imports
Total	614,860
of which:
Germany	103,112
US	64,096
Belgium	62,772
China	51,491
UK	31,210
France	21,627
Norway	19,964
Italy	15,316
Poland	13,667
Ireland	12,454
International trade in services (2023*)
Exports
Total	290,807
of which:
Germany	40,590
US	30,994
UK	28,925
Ireland	20,325
France	17,681
Switzerland	17,639
Belgium	17,121
Italy	8,134
Spain	7,198
Sweden	6,685
Imports
Total	273,323
of which:
US	50,240
UK	33,223
Germany	32,335
Ireland	22,631
France	18,773
Belgium	18,351
Spain	7,736
Italy	6,956
Poland	6,471
India	6,218
Export earnings (2022*)
Total	336,627
of which:
domestic production	165,334
re-exports	41,029
services	130,265
	1,000 FTE
Export-induced employment, in FTEs (2022*)
Total	2,554
Direct
Total	1,108
of which:
goods produced in NL	438
re-exports	48
services	622
Indirect
Total	1,446
of which:
goods produced in NL	670
re-exports	259
services	517

Dutch Trade in Facts and Figures 2024: Exports, imports and investment has been developed by the CBS Expertise Centre for Globalisation at the request of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is its sixth edition. The publication contains annually recurring key figures and indicators on the internationalisation of the Dutch economy and businesses, as well as figures on current trends. These key figures, indicators and descriptive trends provide a quick insight into key aspects of international trade and the role of the Netherlands in global production chains.

This publication consists of seven descriptive chapters, generously illustrated with many figures, infographics and tables. These chapters present the key trends, figures and developments for 2023, and, where possible, offer a glimpse into 2024. Where data for 2023 is not available, the latest available figures are used. The datasets that form the basis of the figures, tables and infographics developed in these chapters are so extensive that they have not been included in full here; they can be accessed and downloaded from the landing page of this publication. As customary, the publication begins with a dashboard with infographics, showing an overview of some of the main findings set out in the chapters. The subsequent chapters focus on the following questions:

• What are some of the latest developments in the area of international trade (Chapter 2)? This edition zooms in on the so-called ‘China-Plus-One strategy’, the imports of products containing critical and strategic raw materials, and lastly, the trade with the United Kingdom several years after Brexit.
• What goods and how much of them does the Netherlands trade, and with which countries (Chapter 3)?
• What services does the Netherlands trade, to what extent, and with which countries (Chapter 4)?
• How much does the Netherlands invest internationally, and how much do other countries invest in the Netherlands (Chapter 5)?
• What does the Netherlands earn from exports, and how much employment is involved in exports (Chapter 6)?
• How do goods and services from the rest of the world work their way through the Dutch economy (Chapter 7)?
• How large is the Dutch footprint because of imports (Chapter 8)?

What has changed in relation to the 2023 edition?

As mentioned earlier, the publication of Dutch Trade in Facts and Figures contains annually recurring key figures and indicators. This allows for effective tracking of the trends and developments regarding the internationalisation of the Dutch economy and businesses. Yet, in some cases we are required to make changes. In most of these cases, the underlying reasons are methodological changes in statistical output, or the availability of internal and external data. In other cases, these have been deliberate decisions to better match the current information needs.

Each year, Chapter 2 introduces new relevant themes that are trending at that time in Dutch international trade or investments. This year, Chapter 2 features the goods trade with China and other Asian countries, the trade in products with critical and strategic raw materials and the goods trade with the United Kingdom a few years after Brexit.

Because trade value trends do not tell the whole story, this publication pays extra attention to volume and price developments of Dutch trade. In addition to the value trends of the international trade, Chapter 3 now also explains the trends in volume and price of the Dutch goods trade. A more detailed distinction is made between product groups, countries and the key products.

Also, Chapter 6 now breaks down export earnings through domestic exports by products, profits and wages. It also pays extra attention to price and volume developments. It now also splits the hours worked for exports into the level of education and sex.

For the first time, Chapter 7, too, explains the trends in price and volume, in addition to the value development of international trade.

In this edition, the information about the footprint of Dutch imports no longer limits itself to a section in Chapter 7. It was decided that this subject deserves its own chapter. For this reason, this edition of Dutch Trade in Facts and Figures introduced a new chapter: Chapter 8. The transfer to a new data source was made in compiling these figures, from the GLORIA MRIO table to the PBL-FIGARO table. This table offers more information, yet is also more dated.

References

Open references