We develop a Strategic Dependency Index (SDI) to quantify the welfare cost of product-level import price shocks. Unlike existing empirical indicators based on concentration metrics and ad hoc thresholds, the SDI is derived from a structural cost-of-living framework, and allows for additive decomposability across products, source countries and destination countries. We apply the SDI to the EU27, and estimate trade elasticities, love-for-variety parameters, and origin-destination- specific taste