WorldCity, Annual Report: No. 8 The Netherlands- One-sided trade exchange | Connecting Local Business Leaders To The Global Economy

Annual Report: No. 8 The Netherlands- One-sided trade exchange

June 30th, 2006

The value of Georgia’s exports to the Netherlands vastly outweighed that of its imports from the European nation.

Georgia sends more than three times as much cargo to the Netherlands as the European country returns to the Peach State, making it one of Georgia’s most favorable trade relationships if judged simply by value.

Two-way trade between Georgia and the Netherlands totaled $2.32 billion in 2005, a slight drop from 2004. While exports to the European country gained 2 percent to reach $1.8 billion, imports fell 11 percent to close 2005 at nearly $506 million.

That left Georgia with a $1.3 billion surplus.

The United States overall also exports more to the Netherlands than it imports from the country, which serves as an important transshipment hub for the rest of Europe. Last year, the U.S. trade surplus with the Netherlands approached $12 billion.

A big portion of the U.S. exports came in the form of telephone equipment, excluding cellular phones. Last year, Georgia exported $788 million in telephony equipment to the Netherlands, a 5.3 percent increase compared with 2004. The Netherlands has one of the most extensive and sophisticated telephone networks in Europe.

At a distant second on the export commodity list were heterocyclic compounds used in drug development. The Netherlands has an active pharmaceutical industry, as well as government-sponsored initiatives focused on drug development, including an international alliance to develop affordable new drugs to prevent tuberculosis. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development are the other members of the alliance.

Some $169 million in heterocyclic compounds were shipped from Georgia to the Netherlands. That figure represented a 40 percent drop from 2004.

Other top exports included $101 million in electric capacitors, or power storage apparatus, $89 million in computers and nearly $66 million in passenger cars, trucks and sports utility vehicles. The capacitors were nearly flat from the year before, but the computer exports represented an 85 percent jump while the automotive exports were up nearly 73 percent.

Exports of surgical equipment were also up by double-digit percentages.

But exports of both regional jet parts and other aircraft parts posted declines, falling 4 percent and 39 percent, respectively.

Smaller companies such as Aircraft Manufacturing & Development (AMD) out of Eastman and Aventure Aviation International in Atlanta supply the international aviation market, but most of the exports are products of Lockheed Martin Corp. in Marietta, according to the Georgia Small Business Development Center. Lockheed Martin’s relationship with the Netherlands dates to the 1950s when the aircraft maker first sold Super Constellation airplanes to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

In 2002, the company sold F-35s as the Dutch government joined the International F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Lockheed was also instrumental in helping Dutch manufacturer Fokker develop the F-16 jet fighter for the Royal Netherlands Air Force. For many years the Dutch Air Force was the largest operator of F-16s outside the U. S. Air Force. Fokker today is part of Stork Aerospace in the Netherlands.

Just as it shipped out aviation equipment, Georgia also imported it. Much of that came in the form of aircraft parts and components that had previously been exported and were returned to the United States for repair. They were listed in the U.S. Census Bureau trade statistics as returned/repaired imports and exports, a category that valued nearly $118 million when it came to trade statistics for Georgia and the Netherlands.

Separately, Georgia imported nearly $64 million in new aircraft parts.