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How dependent is the United Kingdom on Belgium?

In 2024, Belgium sold $18.6 billion to the United Kingdom, 2.6% of its imports, ranking 12th among its suppliers. Its share was 4.7% in 2019 and 5% in 1995. In 9 products it sells more than 50% of what the United Kingdom buys of them (in 2, more than 75%); what the United Kingdom buys from Belgium in those products (dominated value) adds up to $1.5 billion, 0.21% of its imports.

Summary

Some of these goods may have been produced in another country: countries record origin in different ways.

Share of its imports
2.6%
Value imported
$18.6billion
Rank among its suppliers
12th
Products where it sells over 50%
9
Products where it sells over 75%
2
Dominated value
$1.5billion
Share of total imports
0.2%

Trend

Trend in shares

Belgium went from 5% to 2.6% of what the United Kingdom buys

Share (%)

  • Belgium 2.6%

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearValue (USD millions)ShareRank
199513,1855%7
199613,6364.7%7
199715,2065%6
199815,8085%7
199915,2394.7%7
200016,3554.5%6
200116,6784.8%6
200218,1634.9%6
200320,3444.9%6
200424,3015%6
200524,6274.8%6
200627,2584.7%7
200730,6514.8%7
200830,3594.5%7
200923,7794.8%7
201025,7174.4%7
201129,8084.4%7
201227,3784.3%7
201329,2274.5%6
201430,0784.4%6
201527,5914.4%6
201630,7694.9%6
201731,1694.9%6
201833,8025.1%6
201931,3754.7%6
202027,4674.5%6
202130,5424.5%7
202220,7982.7%9
202318,5592.5%11
202418,5732.6%12

Products where Belgium sells more than half

ProductSupplierShareSecondValue
Frozen vegetablesBelgium57.5%Netherlands · 32.2%$912 million
Copper wireBelgium61%Germany · 13.2%$234 million
Ceramic building bricksBelgium60%Netherlands · 25.8%$180 million
Refined copperBelgium71%Spain · 7.5%$94 million
Bones and horn-cores, unworkedBelgium93.9%over 75%Ireland · 5.2%$29 million
Glass blocks, tiles and mosaicsBelgium56.2%China · 11.3%$22 million
Hydrogen peroxideBelgium56.5%Netherlands · 16.8%$19 million
Peanut oilBelgium82.9%over 75%France · 9.8%$10 million
Dithionites and sulfoxylatesBelgium58.7%Germany · 28.5%$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?

  • Belgium sells 28.8% of what the world exports of frozen vegetables; next come Netherlands (20%), Canada (13.7%) and United States (10.5%). The rest of the world exported 12 times what the United Kingdom buys from Belgium.
  • Belgium sells 7.2% of what the world exports of copper wire; next come Germany (12.4%), United Arab Emirates (8.3%) and Spain (6.7%). The rest of the world exported 118.8 times what the United Kingdom buys from Belgium.
  • Belgium sells 18.7% of what the world exports of ceramic building bricks; next come China (28.4%), Netherlands (9%) and Germany (6.4%). The rest of the world exported 6.2 times what the United Kingdom buys from Belgium.
  • Belgium sells 1.5% of what the world exports of refined copper; next come Democratic Republic of the Congo (20.6%), Chile (18.4%) and Japan (7.7%). The rest of the world exported 996.5 times what the United Kingdom buys from Belgium.
  • Belgium sells 11% of what the world exports of bones and horn-cores, unworked; next come Germany (14.5%), United States (10.8%) and Australia (6.4%). The rest of the world exported 9.1 times what the United Kingdom buys from Belgium.
  • Belgium sells 11.7% of what the world exports of glass blocks, tiles and mosaics; next come China (44.9%), Czechia (7.6%) and Spain (6.8%). The rest of the world exported 38.9 times what the United Kingdom buys from Belgium.
  • Belgium sells 14.1% of what the world exports of hydrogen peroxide; next come Germany (8.6%), South Korea (8.4%) and Brazil (6.9%). The rest of the world exported 44.9 times what the United Kingdom buys from Belgium.
  • Belgium sells 4.4% of what the world exports of peanut oil; next come India (46.6%), Brazil (15.3%) and Argentina (12.2%). The rest of the world exported 75.1 times what the United Kingdom buys from Belgium.
  • Belgium sells 7.6% of what the world exports of dithionites and sulfoxylates; next come China (39.3%), Germany (20.7%) and India (16.9%). The rest of the world exported 85.2 times what the United Kingdom buys from Belgium.

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

Seen from Belgium

The United Kingdom is Belgium’s 6th-largest customer, with 4.8% 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.