71029 Belgium: Trade At-A-Glance Dec-08 2007 GDP 2007 GDP 2007 Share 2007 Trade Membership No. of RTAs/ EIAs (millions) per capita in World Trade per capita GATT WTO Goods Services $448,717 $42,388 2.23% $70,008 1948 1995 25 4 Belgium TRADE PERFORMANCE ‡ HI OECD Ranking Decile TP High inc TRADE POLICY (TP) (out of 125) 25 2 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT (EE) (out of 126) 20 2 TO EE INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT (IE) (out of 181) 19 2 TRADE FACILITATION (TF) (out of 151) 12 1 TRADE OUTCOME (TO) (out of 161) 61 4 TF IE ‡ Rankings are based on the "representative" indicators (in bold) in each group below for the latest year Outer bound represents best value in latest year TRADE POLICY (TP)  1995-99^ 2000-04^ 2005-07^ Latest^ Trade Tariff Restrictiveness Index (MFN applied tariffs)& 3.9 4.1 4.1 * TTRI (applied tariffs including preferences) & .. 1.6 1.8 * TTRI Overall TRI (OTRI, applied tariffs incl. prefs.+NTMs)& .. 6.5 6.4 * (MFN) Other trade policy indicators MFN applied tariff - simple avg (%) 7.9 6.1 5.3 5.5 Applied Dispersion (coefficient of variation) 4.4 10.1 1.7 2.0 tariff (wgt avg) Maximum rate 1635.3 2102.4 201.3 228.8 Agriculture - simple avg (%) 26.4 19.1 14.7 16.7 Import Nonagriculture - simple avg (%) 5.2 4.2 3.9 3.8 duties MFN applied tariff - trade weighted avg (%) 5.7 3.5 3.2 3.2 MFN zero-duty imports (% in total imports) 27.4 44.3 58.8 56.7 * Applied tariff (incl. prefs.) - trade weighted avg (%) 4.3 2.2 1.9 2.1 Nontariff measures Agriculture 20.4 11.2 9.4 10.1 Nonagriculture 2.9 1.6 1.5 1.6 0 10 20 30 40 Applied tariff (incl. prefs.) - production weighted avg (%) .. 1.5 1.7 * HI OECD High inc Belgium Applied tariff (incl. prefs.) escalation (finished% minus raw%) -0.3 1.0 1.0 Agriculture .. 7.4 14.4 16.5 Nonagriculture .. -2.2 1.0 0.9 Import duties (% of imports) .. .. .. .. Services commit. Tariff overhang (MFN bound less MFN applied rate,%) -0.3 1.4 0.2 0.0 Bound tariff frequency ratio (% of total lines) 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 * Specific tariffs frequency ratio (%) 3.2 3.7 12.5 10.5 0 40 80 Non-tariff measures frequency ratio (%) 34.4 .. .. .. HI OECD High inc Belgium Overall GATS commitment index (0-100, best) .. 46.4 46.4 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT (EE)  1995-99^ 2000-04^ 2005-07^ Latest^ MA-TTRI (applied tariffs incl. prefs.)& 4.8 4.4 * MA-OTRI (applied tariffs incl. prefs.+NTMs)& 14.3 9.1 * MA-TTRI Other external environment indicators ROW applied tariff (incl. prefs.) - weighted avg (%) 22.2 6.2 3.9 3.2 * MFN duty free Agriculture 25.8 17.4 10.9 9.0 * (exports) Nonagriculture 21.7 5.6 3.5 2.9 * MFN zero-duty exports (% of total exports) 12.6 35.0 45.1 46.0 * Value of prefer Exports with FTA / CU partners (% of total exports) 79.2 79.7 81.6 81.8 * Preferences (EU+U.S.) utilization rate (%) .. .. .. .. 0 1 Lowest Highest Preferences (EU+U.S.) actual value (% of exports) .. .. .. .. HI OECD High inc Belgium Real effective exchange rate (% change,+ =apprec.) -1.4 0.8 0.7 4.3 ^ Indicators shown are period averages, incl. growth rates. Latest indicates 2008; when not available, 2006 or 2007 is used(noted by *). For more infor., see User's Guide at http://www.worldbank.org/wti2008. ŸMFN: most favored nation; NTM: nontariff measures; MA: market access; ROW: rest of the world; FTA: free trade agreement; CU: customs union; WTO: World Trade Organization GATT: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; WGI: World Government Indicators; ".." indicates missing value; RTA/EIA: regional trade arrangement / economic integration arrangement; & 2007 are preliminary estimates Belgium Trade At-A-Glance Dec-08 INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT (IE) 2004 2006 2007 2008 Ease of Doing Business (rank out of 181) .. .. 16 19 Starting a business (rank) .. .. 19 20 Enforcing contracts (rank) .. .. 22 20 Ease of Doing Closing a business (rank) .. 9 22 Business Other institutional environment indicators WGI - Regulatory Quality (-2.5 to +2.5, best) 1.79 1.76 1.59 .. 0 80 160 WGI - Rule of Law (-2.5 to +2.5, best) 1.49 1.43 1.52 .. HI OECD High inc Belgium WGI - Control of Corruption (-2.5 to +2.5, best) 1.51 1.41 1.45 .. TRADE FACILITATION (TF) 1995-99^ 2000-04^ 2005-07^ Latest^ Logistics Performance Index (LPI, 1 to 5 best) .. .. 3.9 3.9 * Efficiency of customs and other border procedures .. .. 3.6 3.6 * Logistic Index Quality of transport and IT infrastructures .. .. 4.0 4.0 * International transportation costs .. .. 3.7 3.7 * Logistics competence .. .. 3.9 3.9 * Trading Trackability of shipments .. .. 4.0 4.0 * Across Borders Domestic transportation costs .. .. 2.6 2.6 * Timeliness of shipment .. .. 4.3 4.3 * Other trade facilitation indicators UNCTAD Shipping Doing Business - Trading Across Borders (rank out of 181) .. 48 43 No. of documents required for exports .. .. 4 4 No. of days process required for exports .. .. 8 8 Telephones Cost to export (US$ per container) .. .. 1,600 1,619 per 100 No. of documents required for imports .. .. 5 5 No. of days process required for imports .. .. 9 9 Secondary Cost to import (US$ per container) .. .. 1,600 1,600 enrollment Liner shipping connectivity index (0-100 best) .. .. 74.5 73.9 Telephones and mobiles per 100 people 60.0 123.7 137.5 140.2 * 0 Lowest 1 Highest Average cost of 3-minute call to U.S. (US$) 2.5 0.8 .. .. HI OECD High inc Belgium Internet usage (per 100 people) 6.1 34.4 47.1 49.1 * Secondary gross school enrollment (%) 142.8 145.3 109.4 109.7 * TRADE OUTCOME (TO) ## 1995-99^ 2000-04^ 2005-07^ Latest^ Real growth in trade of goods and services (%) 4.9 3.8 3.9 7.9 10 8.7 Exports 5.0 3.8 3.5 5.5 8 8.4 7.9 7.9 7.2 6.6 Imports 4.8 3.7 4.5 10.4 6 5.7 5.3 4.9 Other trade outcome indicators 4 3.8 3.9 Trade integration (trade as % of GDP) 142.1 167.9 172.1 192.0 2 FDI inflow (% of GDP) 15.8 31.0 13.7 16.7 0 1995-99 2000-04 2005-07 2008 World trade share growth (%) -1.0 -1.5 -4.8 1.4 Trade Growth Rate Exports -0.9 -1.7 -5.2 -1.2 Belgium HI OECD High inc Imports -1.2 -1.3 -4.4 4.0 Merchandise share in total exports (%) 80.4 79.9 81.9 81.9 Exports Share (2005-07) Agriculture 8.9 8.1 7.6 7.6 * Service, Agric, Manufacturing 64.3 64.5 64.3 63.7 * 7.6 18.1 Mining, fuel and others 4.9 7.3 10.5 11.2 * Service share in total exports (%) 19.6 20.1 18.1 18.0 Mining, Tourism 3.0 3.4 2.9 2.6 * 10.5 Transportation 5.1 4.5 5.0 6.1 * Other services 11.5 12.3 10.2 10.6 * Export product concentration index (0 to 100, highest) .. 10.9 10.7 10.5 * Manuf, Export market concentration index (0 to 100, highest) 31.6 31.3 31.4 31.5 * 64.3 Top 5 exports share (% of merchandise exports) .. .. 29.0 28.7 * Top 5 exports (SITC Rev. 2; 3 digit) ( 542) Medicaments (781) Passenger cars (667) Pearls/ precious stones (334) Heavy petroleum oils (515) Chemical compounds ^ Indicators shown are period averages, incl. growth rates. Latest indicates 2008; when not available, 2006 or 2007 is used (noted by *). For more info., see User's Guide at http://www.worldbank.org/wti2008 ## Most outcome indicators (mostly through 2007) are from the WDI (World Bank, Data Group), UNCTAD or COMTRADE; for filling gaps and 2008, data from the Prospects Group are used.