Figures released by the National Bank of Belgium (BNB) on Thursday show that Belgian exports to the United States fell by 12.5% in the second quarter of 2025. During the first quarter of this year, exports had risen by over 20% in response to President Trump's announcement of new US import tariffs from the beginning of April.
Belgium recorded a trade surplus of 11.6 billion euro for the first half of the year, compared with 10.4 billion euro for the same period last year. This improvement is mainly due to imports falling more sharply than exports:
Imports: –1.3% to 240.9 billion euro
Exports: –0.7% to 252.5 billion euro
The positive trend in the trade balance is primarily attributable to the mechanical engineering and electrical engineering sectors, as well as chemical and pharmaceutical products. The latter benefited in particular from strategic advance sales made by companies in order to pre-empt an increase in import tariff announced by the Trump administration.
In its report the National Bank says that “This strategy led to a sharp increase in sales to the US during the first quarter. This was not offset in the second quarter”.
In the first half of the year, exports of chemical and pharmaceutical products rose by 1.3%, while imports fell by 1.4%.
Second quarter compared with first quarter
• Global imports: –4.4%
• Global exports: –1.2%
• Exports to the US: –12.5%
• Imports from the US: +9.5%
International trade in goods accounted for around 80% of Belgium's gross domestic product (GDP) in the first half of the year. This represents a stabilisation following the sharp fluctuations in recent years that were caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.