Internationalisation monitor 2012 - CBS

In contrast, Dutch exports of services fell by 4.7 percent in 2009. However, services exports
bounced back strongly, with an 8.8 percent growth rate in 2010 and a 9.8 percent growth
rate in 2011. As such, the economic crisis had a far more negative impact on the trade in
commodities than on the trade in services (see Chapter 3 for trends in international trade
in services).
The geographic location of the Netherlands makes it a logical gateway to the rest of
Europe for goods arriving from all over the world. As such, re-exporting is an important
activity for the Netherlands, amounting to over 44 percent of total Dutch exports in 2011.
The Netherlands still was the fifth
largest exporter in the world in 2011
Table 1.2.2 shows that the developments for re-exports are very different than for
domestically produced exports. Re-exports already almost stopped growing in 2008. This
indicates that the European economy, receiving the bulk of these re-exports, was already
slowing down either in terms of import demand, or because customers were supplied from
stock. While the decline in re-exports in 2009 was less severe than that of domestically
produced exports, and the increase in 2010 was higher. In 2011, the growth of re-exports
slowed down, while the export value of domestic products kept growing.
1.2.2 Dutch International trade in goods
Imports Exports Of which
domestic exports re-exports
billion euro % billion euro % billion euro % billion euro %
2004 228.2 10 255.7 9 145.3 6 110.4 13
2005 249.8 9 281.3 10 159.4 10 121.9 10
2006 285.4 14 319.0 13 179.0 12 139.9 15
2007 307.3 8 347.5 9 192.3 7 155.2 11
2008 335.9 9 370.5 7 212.5 11 157.9 2
2009 274.0 −18 309.4 −16 169.4 −20 139.9 −11
2010 331.9 21 371.5 20 199.9 18 171.6 23
2011 364.9 10 409.4 9 231.1 16 178.3 4
2012Q1* 96.8 7 107.6 5 60.3 5 47.3 5
Source: CBS, Statline, International trade in goods statistics (extracted: 2-9-2012).
26 Statistics Netherlands