Has Globalisation Really Peaked for Europe?

A strong participation in Baldwin and others debunking using such indicators, the picture is the “new globalisation” is also key the myth that we enter a period of much more nuanced and, in the case for the future EU competitiveness in de-globalisation. [...] One such detailed indicator that can capture the extent to which the EU has become more integrated into the global economy is the number of firms in Europe that engage in trade, notably the number of EU firms that rely on imported products for their economic activities. [...] This finding is quite remarkable if one thinks of the unprecedented shocks that global supply chains suffered in recent years and the massive decline in trade witnessed globally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and other trade shocks (e.g., the semiconductors crisis crippling automotive production lines, the blockage of the Suez Canal, geopolitical tensions, high shipping costs and port conges. [...] A second detailed indicator to gauge the complexity and the diversity of global sourcing patterns for EU trade is to look at the number of suppliers for every imported product in the EU at a very disaggregated product levels (Figure 5). [...] Moving from opinions to trade statistics, the consumers’ “love of variety” is also reflected in the importance of globalisation measured by the share of imports in overall household consumption.