The relationship between maritime trade networks and foreing trade performance in container transportation: An analysis within the scope of European Union countries

Foreign trade can be defined as the trade of goods and services between countries. In the globalizing world, foreign trade is one of the crucial factors for developing national economies. Countries contribute to expanding foreign trade volume with their foreign trade activities and increasing employment with processes such as production and logistics. International trade networks have emerged due to commercial activities between different countries. Proximity to maritime transportation networks, raw materials, and energy sources influence trade networks. International trade networks have a significant impact on foreign trade performance. This study examines the relationship between maritime trade networks and foreign trade performance in the European Union. In the established models, export, import, and foreign trade volume from foreign trade performance indicators are dependent variables; maritime trade networks, Gross Domestic Product, and real effective exchange rate are independent variables. As maritime trade networks, the liner shipping connectivity index, established by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 2004, shows the effectiveness of countries' dependence on global maritime networks according to the status of their maritime transport sectors. In the study, which included 19 European Union member countries, analysis was made within the scope of the data for 2012-2021. Panel data techniques were applied in the analyzes made through the Stata 17 package program. In line with the results of the assumption tests, fixed effect model estimations were made using the Driscoll-Kraay (1998) standard error estimator. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that maritime trade networks, the Gross Domestic Product, and the real effective exchange rate were influential on the foreign trade performance of the countries.