The main purpose of this Working Paper is providing an overview of the economic importance of the Flemish maritime ports, the Liege port complex and the port of Brussels over the period 2014–2019 in terms of value added, employment and investment based on annual account figures. In 2019, Belgian ports generated € 32.2 billion in direct and indirect value added (6.8% of Belgian GDP) and employed 254 009 full-time equivalents (FTEs) either directly or indirectly (5.9% of Belgian domestic employment including the self-employed). Direct employment at Belgian ports rose by 2% in 2019 mainly due to additional jobs in the cargo handling. Other sectors generated extra jobs too. All Belgian ports except for Brussels contributed to the overall job growth. Direct value added at Belgian ports grew by 1.4% in 2019. The increase was particularly evident at the ports of Antwerp and Liege, partly owing to wider capacity at nuclear power plants, after lower capacity in 2018. At the port of Antwerp, shipping companies faced higher value added. All Belgian ports enjoyed a rise in direct value added. After a high investment volume in 2018 thanks to a merger among shipping companies direct investment by all Belgian ports together bounced back by 22.9% to a level of € 4.8 billion in 2019, an amount quite similar to that seen two years before. Sea transport is the dominant transport mode of Belgian international trade in terms of volumes to countries outside the EU. The trend in international trade by shipping is explored, with a particular focus on the trade situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. To contain the spread of COVID-19, governments worldwide imposed stringent containment measures that resulted in huge economic disruptions. A first glimpse of the impact on Belgian ports in 2020 is provided, based on monthly turnover figures

Quels sont les obstacles à la mobilité des travailleurs, des capitaux, des biens et des services en Belgique ? Le passage d’une frontière régionale est-il un frein à ces flux économiques ? À l’heure de la mondialisation, la distance joue-t-elle encore un rôle ? L’article rassemble une série inédite d’informations microéconomiques pour répondre au mieux à ces questions. La Belgique constitue un cas d’étude intéressant. Avec des distances intérieures toujours inférieures à 300 kilomètres à vol d’oiseau, le pays est petit et densément maillé d’infrastructures de transport. En outre, sa topographie ne comporte aucun obstacle naturel. En revanche, d’autres facteurs pèsent sur la mobilité. La congestion des axes routiers à l’approche des centres urbains freine les mouvements. La coexistence de trois langues nationales et de trois régions peut dresser des barrières culturelles et réglementaires. In fine, la Belgique est-elle un village ? Ou les trois régions constituent-elles trois économies déconnectées ? Codes JEL : D22, F14, F15, F61

In recent years, production processes have become fragmented both internationally and domestically. While the international dimension of this phenomenon has been widely documented in the literature, the domestic dimension, beyond the intersectoral relations documented in input-output matrices, is less often analyzed due to the scarce availability of microeconomic data documenting the relations between firms. The purpose of this article is to document these B2B relationships at the microeconomic level in Belgium and to identify the direct and indirect integration of Belgian firms in global value chains. Our analyses show that this fragmentation and direct or indirect participation in international trade generate productivity gains.JEL Codes: D22, F61, L23

Au cours des dernières décennies, les processus de production se sont fragmentés tant au niveau international qu’au niveau domestique. Si la dimension internationale de ce phénomène a été largement documentée dans la littérature, la dimension domestique, au-delà des relations intersectorielles documentées dans les matrices Input-Output est moins souvent analysée du fait de la faible disponibilité de données microéconomiques documentant les relations entre entreprises. L’objet de cet article est de documenter ces relations B2B au niveau microéconomique en Belgique et d’identifier l’intégration directe et indirecte des entreprises belges aux chaînes globales de valeur. Nos analyses montrent que cette fragmentation et la plus ou moins grande participation aux échanges internationaux génèrent des gains de productivité. Codes JEL : D22, F61, L23

Are the production structures in the Flemish, Walloon and Brussels Regions interconnected, or conversely, do they tend to function independently of one another ? The article shines a light on trade between the three Regions and assesses the size of the regional barriers that exist in Belgium. Establishing a trade relationship with a firm located in a different Region does in fact entail an additional cost. The estimates indicate that a Flemish firm faces an implicit barrier equivalent to 10 km when wishing to make a sale to a Walloon firm. A Walloon supplier seeking a Flemish trade customer is confronted by an implicit barrier of 30 km. The presence of interregional barriers does not prevent trade between the Regions. Half of all firms in Belgium sell to trade customers in another Region. Overall, each Region is involved in the export trade of the other two Regions. Moreover, 7 % of Flemish value added is invested or consumed by households or public authorities in the other two Regions. For Flanders, the Walloon market alone is comparable in size to the German or French market, and larger than the Dutch market. For Wallonia and Brussels, the interregional market absorbs 9 % and 40 % respectively of the value added created. It accounts for a bigger share than the German and French markets taken together. In that connection, the authors draw attention to the striking contrast between the foreign markets served by Flanders and those of Wallonia.

Are the production structures in the Flemish, Walloon and Brussels Regions interconnected, or conversely, do they tend to function independently of one another ? The article shines a light on trade between the three Regions and assesses the size of the regional barriers that exist in Belgium. Establishing a trade relationship with a firm located in a different Region does in fact entail an additional cost. The estimates indicate that a Flemish firm faces an implicit barrier equivalent to 10 km when wishing to make a sale to a Walloon firm. A Walloon supplier seeking a Flemish trade customer is confronted by an implicit barrier of 30 km. The presence of interregional barriers does not prevent trade between the Regions. Half of all firms in Belgium sell to trade customers in another Region. Overall, each Region is involved in the export trade of the other two Regions. Moreover, 7 % of Flemish value added is invested or consumed by households or public authorities in the other two Regions. For Flanders, the Walloon market alone is comparable in size to the German or French market, and larger than the Dutch market. For Wallonia and Brussels, the interregional market absorbs 9 % and 40 % respectively of the value added created. It accounts for a bigger share than the German and French markets taken together. In that connection, the authors draw attention to the striking contrast between the foreign markets served by Flanders and those of Wallonia.

The Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet) was set up back in 2012 by the European System of Central Banks. Its initial objectives were to identify the determinants of European countries’ and firms’ competitive positions as well as their productivity and to set out the relationship between these different competitiveness factors and macroeconomic performance (exports or growth, for instance). It brought together more than a hundred research workers from fifty or so institutions (including central banks, the European Commission, international organisations, universities), leading to an in-depth study of the theme of competitiveness, as well as an analysis and better understanding of the development of global production chains. Particular effort has been devoted to establishing new competitiveness indicators. The objective of this article is to present the main findings of their work.

Using a unique and original database which combines information on the organisation of the domestic production network with data from segments of international production chains, the research work described in the article aims to present some new findings on how the Belgian economy works. One of the first points to emerge is that Belgian firms have a lot of mutual trading links. Compared to other economies, the Belgian economy seems to exhibit a relatively high degree of fragmentation of production. In addition, via trading links with import or export firms, the majority of Belgian firms are integrated – albeit indirectly – into global production chains. The question of the economy’s external competitiveness is therefore not confined to exporters alone, but extends to a very large number of firms active in a wide variety of branches of activity. In general, belonging to a fragmented production chain seems to be beneficial. Belgian firms which specialise in specific segments of the production chain fared better, and especially those active at the end of the production chain. During the economic and financial crisis, however, specialisation was actually a risk factor for firms, especially for those involved in the early stages of production. Overall, since the crisis, the trading links established by firms in the network have not made up for the links lost. It is therefore more crucial than ever to create new businesses in order to regenerate the domestic production network.

The liberalisation of trade and finance, the reduction in transport costs and progress in the field of information and communication technologies have brought about profound changes in the international environment. As a result, the interpenetration of economies has increased sharply, and this has been reflected in the growing intensification of international trade in goods and services. Against this background, there has been considerable diversification of the type of goods and services traded across national borders and the list of trading partners has lengthened. This process of transformation is mirrored in the importance of the role played by the extensive margin in longterm growth of Belgian exports since 1995. The changing pattern of exports associated with new markets opening up or existing ones being abandoned, to which this extensive margin refers, even seems to have intensified during the recent recession. The growth of Belgium’s exports over the last five years has in fact largely had its roots in the diversification of Belgian exporters’ product portfolios. They seem to have repositioned themselves in market segments with higher technological content, in expanding markets like eastern Europe, China and India so as to safeguard or boost their market share abroad.

Résumé Cet article propose une discussion d’un modèle de Baland et Duprez (2009, 2009bis) qui étude l’impact d’un label garantissant des conditions de travail décentes dans le secteur à l’exportation du Sud. Lorsque seul un nombre restreint d’unités de production peuvent obtenir le label, de sorte que le Sud exporte des produits labellisés et des produits non-labellisés, les producteurs labellisés bénéficient en général de l’introduction du label, alors que les producteurs non-labellisés y perdent. Lorsqu’un label garantit l’absence de travail d’enfants, l’impact final sur celui-ci est en général incertain. JEL Codes : F02, F16, O10, 019