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How dependent is Belgium on Ireland?

In 2024, Ireland sold $10.7 billion to Belgium, 2.7% of its imports, ranking 8th among its suppliers. Its share was 4.4% in 2019 and 1.2% in 1995. In 4 products it sells more than 50% of what Belgium buys of them (in 3, more than 75%); what Belgium buys from Ireland in those products (dominated value) adds up to $3.1 billion, 0.79% of its imports.

Summary

Share of its imports
2.7%
Value imported
$10.7billion
Rank among its suppliers
8th
Products where it sells over 50%
4
Products where it sells over 75%
3
Dominated value
$3.1billion
Share of total imports
0.8%

Trend

Trend in shares

Ireland went from 1.2% to 2.7% of what Belgium buys

Share (%)

  • Ireland 2.7%

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearValue (USD millions)ShareRank
19951,8001.2%11
19962,4121.5%10
19972,6911.7%11
19984,3862.6%9
19993,7382.2%9
20004,2072.3%8
20015,1492.8%8
200214,1176.9%5
200313,3205.6%6
200418,0586.2%5
200520,5656.4%5
200619,9105.6%5
200719,8794.8%6
200818,6454%7
200921,7066.1%4
20103,7301.2%14
20113,4110.95%18
20123,7411.1%15
20133,4590.99%18
20143,5471%17
20153,3861.2%17
201611,6153.9%7
201714,1884.4%6
201818,8865.2%5
201915,0864.4%5
202014,8044.7%6
202112,9253.2%8
202217,0893.7%9
202318,7564.3%5
202410,6552.7%8

Products where Ireland sells more than half

ProductSupplierShareSecondValue
Bulk medicinesIreland75.9%over 75%United States · 18.9%$2.5 billion
Fragrance mixturesIreland57.7%France · 13.6%$280 million
SulfonamidesIreland76%over 75%Singapore · 8.7%$259 million
Diesel and other locomotivesIreland96.2%over 75%Czechia · 2.4%$3 million

A product has a dominant supplier when a single country sells more than 50% of what is bought of it; we flag it separately above 75%.

Are there other suppliers in the world?

  • Ireland sells 18.2% of what the world exports of bulk medicines; next come United States (15%), Portugal (13.7%) and Germany (5.6%). The rest of the world exported 5.3 times what Belgium buys from Ireland.
  • Ireland sells 35.9% of what the world exports of fragrance mixtures; next come France (8.2%), United States (8.2%) and Germany (7.6%). The rest of the world exported 78 times what Belgium buys from Ireland.
  • Ireland sells 31.2% of what the world exports of sulfonamides; next come Switzerland (26.4%), India (9.2%) and China (8.8%). The rest of the world exported 21.1 times what Belgium buys from Ireland.
  • Ireland sells 0.26% of what the world exports of diesel and other locomotives; next come United States (32.2%), Spain (18.1%) and South Korea (11.1%). The rest of the world exported 706.6 times what Belgium buys from Ireland.

Exports from the rest of the world already have buyers; the figure shows scale, not availability.

Seen from Ireland

Belgium is Ireland’s 6th-largest customer, with 4.1% of its exports.

Sources and method

Sources and licenses

Methodology

The data come from CEPII BACI (Etalab 2.0 licence), which reconciles what the exporting and the importing country report, in current USD, FOB. Data up to 2024.

Dependence is the share of a country’s imports (or exports) that each partner accounts for. It does not measure whether a product has a substitute or how much it would cost to change supplier.

The concentration index (HHI) adds up the square of each partner’s share, in percent: it runs from 0 to 10,000. Its equivalent is 10,000 ÷ HHI, the number of partners of the same size that would give that value.

Products are HS4 headings of the 1992 nomenclature (some combine different goods), with a floor of $1 million per product and country.

The EU is the 27 current members in every year; the United Kingdom is outside the EU throughout the series.

Re-exports: countries that act as redistribution hubs carry their notice and the figures are not corrected.