Importance to EU of UK trade
The EU is by far the UK’s largest trade partner. By contrast, EU trade with the UK is much less important to the EU than its intra-EU trade. However, the UK is still one the EU’s top external trading partners.
For the EU, the breakdown of total trade in 2024 was 5.4% with the UK and 57.6% inside the EU:
- 5.4% or EUR 1,015 billion with the UK comprised EUR 505 billion in goods and EUR 510 billion in services.
- 57.6% of intra-EU trade or EUR 10,791 billion comprised EUR 7,944 billion in goods and EUR 2,847 billion in services.
- 36.9% was outside the EU (excluding UK) and was worth EUR 6,922 billion: EUR 4,516 billion in goods and EUR 2,406 billion in services.
Even on 5.4%, the UK was an important trading partner for the EU ranking:
- third partner for goods trade after the US and China and accounting for 10.1% of extra-EU goods trade in 2024;
- second partner for extra-EU goods exports (after the US) accounting for 13.2%.
- second partner for services trade (accounting for 18.9%).
Figure 5.20: EU trade with UK (€ billion – 2024)
Source: DG Trade Statistical Guide, August 2023
UK-EU trade trends
The three charts below show the overall trends in real prices (CVM) for UK-EU trade:
- Exports of services to the EU have been increasing while exports of goods have been flatlining or declining (Figure 5.21). A cross-over point was touched in 2024 when, for the first time, services exports to the EU almost matched goods exports.
- Imports of services from the EU have been increasing, while goods imports have been increasing slightly faster than exports (Figure 5.22).
- The UK’s overall trade deficit with the EU has been growing and reached £99 billion in 2024 (Figure 5.23). The services trade surplus has been gradually growing to reach £40 billion in 2004. However, the goods deficit has been growing faster, causing the overall deficit to rise.
Figure 5.21: Exports to EU
Figure 5.22: Imports from EU
Figure 5.23: Trade balance with EU
Source: ONS, Breakdown of trade data, 30 September 2025
Import and export linkages
Imports and exports are linked through intermediate products (components, assemblies etc.) in global value chains, which account for a large proportion of international trade. The majority of UK exports and imports are now made up of goods or services that are themselves inputs into production.
This sort of trade is particularly important for understanding the UK’s trade with the EU. Over half of the UK’s imports from the EU are of such intermediate goods and services, as are nearly 70% of our exports to the EU (see Figure 5.24 from the IFS using 2014 data). These shares have also been growing over time. Intermediate goods and services tend to be more important in the UK’s exports to the EU than in its exports to other destinations.
Brexit puts the UK’s role in integrated supply chains at risk through additional costs and delays caused by new non-tariff barriers on UK-EU trade. This risk is not limited to EU trade in integrated supply chains. For example, many exports of UK goods to the US depend on UK imports of intermediate goods from the EU.
Figure 5.24: Share of intermediate goods and services in the UK’s imports and exports, 2000–14
Source: IFS, Firms’ supply chains form an important part of UK-EU trade: what does this mean for future trade policy?, January 2018
Trade with EU by commodity
For the top 17 goods commodities that the UK traded with the EU (same categories as those in the section on UK trade in Figure 5.18), see Figures 5.25. For more in-depth analysis of UK trade with the EU, please see the House of Commons Briefing on Statistics on UK-EU Trade – CBP 7851. However the latest available at the time of writing (June 2024) relates to 2022.
Goods trade with the EU totalled £316 billion of imports and £181 billion of exports in 2024. The largest import was £39.5 billion of food and live animals followed by £32 billion of cars. The third import category was medicinal and pharmaceutical products on £19 billion.
The UK’s top export category was medicinal and pharmaceutical products (£16 billion, followed by three categories, each on £11 billion: food and live animals, mechanical power generators (intermediate), and crude oil.
Nine of the top ten commodities (apart from crude oil) had a trade deficit. The biggest trade deficit was £28 billion for food and live animals.
To give you an idea of the importance of the UK’s trade with the EU against its world trade, the chart shows the EU percentage shares of the UK’s world imports and exports. For example, the UK got 70% or more of its imports of cars, food, live animals medicinal and pharmaceutical goods from the EU. Sixty-four percent of UK food and live animal exports also go to the EU, but now only 30% of UK car exports are EU-bound.
Figure 5.25: UK goods trade with EU by commodity
Trade with EU by service type
Services trade with the EU totalled £186 billion exports and £143 billion of imports (in current prices) in 2024.
The top ten service types (shown in Figure 5.26) accounted for 89% of exports and 85% of imports:
- seven each generated a trade surplus, totalling £124 billion
- three with a deficit (travel, transportation and insurance) created a deficit of £34 billion
The top import category was travel, accounting for £46 billion of imports. This represents business and personal travel of UK citizens to the EU.
The trade deficit with the EU on travel was £29 billion. Transportation services also had significant imports of £20 billion and a trade deficit of £4 billion.
The top services export was financial services with £34 billion and a trade surplus of £29 billion – coincidentally matching the travel trade deficit. Telecommunications, computer and information services was the UK’s next most important export to the EU at £21 billion, just above exports relating to intellectual property services. They both generated a surplus of £14 billion each.
Apart from travel and transportation, the UK seems less reliant than goods on the EU as an export market for its top ten services, as the percentages show, but the EU remains a critical market for the UK services industry.
Figure 5.26: UK services trade with EU by service type
Trade with EU member states
Before Brexit, trade with the UK was particularly important for certain EU member states relative to the size of their economies, as can be seen by measuring UK trade as a percentage of GDP in 2015 (Figure 5.27).
- Ireland because of its geographical proximity and close ties
- Smaller economies with historic UK ties like Cyprus and Malta.
- In larger countries, UK trade is often important for certain sectors and regions. For example, in Germany, UK trade is important for manufacturing in the south west.
- UK trade with Netherlands and Belgium may be inflated by goods in transit to other EU destinations (the ‘Rotterdam effect’).
Sector concentrations in goods varied by country, for example:
- German goods exports to the UK were concentrated in road vehicles, other manufactures and chemicals.
- Belgian and Dutch exports to the UK were concentrated in machinery and transport equipment, and chemicals.
- Ireland was a notable exporter of food products to the UK, whereas its imports were highly diversified.
- Malta also had diversified imports from the UK, whereas its exports of goods to the UK were relatively small.
Go to Interactive tools to explore the 2024 mix of trade with the UK for individual EU countries.
Figure 5.27: UK trade with the EU by member state (as % of GDP – 2015)
Source:
ONS, UK total trade: all countries, non-seasonally adjusted, 24 October 2025
European Commission, An assessment of the economic impact of Brexit in the EU27, March 2017
Coverage of UK trade by EU deals
Eighteen of the UK’s top 20 trading partners in 2018 benefitted from EU trade deals.
At the time of Brexit, the EU had 69 trade agreements in force with non-EU countries. This meant that the majority of UK trade was with trade partners that had some form of trade agreement with the EU. Also, the EU’s General Scheme of Preferences (GSP) assisted 70 developing nations with zero tariffs on their exports to the EU (see details below). As a result of the EU’s trade deals and GSP, 82% to 87% of UK goods imports were tariff-free as an EU member (see below).
China (5.0%) and the UAE (1.3%) were the only two partners with no agreement or significant WTO side deals, and were not negotiating an FTA with the EU.
- China was negotiating an investment partnership with the EU.
- UAE had been negotiating an FTA, but the negotiation was paused.
Of the remaining 18 partners which covered 71.7% of trade, including 16.6% with WTO+ countries:
- US (15.0% of trade) and Hong Kong (1.6%) had no overarching trade agreements with the EU, but traded on WTO+:
- WTO plus several bilateral agreements with the EU (such as mutual recognition agreements) that went well beyond WTO terms. The US had also been granted EU equivalence in relation to financial services.
- Nine EU members accounted for 42.4% of trade
- Norway, an EEA member (2.2%)
- Switzerland, India and Canada with FTAs (5.7%)
- Japan and Australia were negotiating FTAs (3.4%)
- Turkey in a Customs Union with the EU (1.3%)
In addition, the other 18 EU members covered 6.7% of UK trade.
There was also trade with the Crown Dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man) and Gibraltar:
- Crown Dependencies were:
- part of the EU Customs Union
- in the Single Market for trade in goods and agricultural products (including fish).
- Gibraltar was a member of the Single Market.
Table 5.5: EU trade relationships of UK’s top trading partners (2018)
Sources:
ONS, UK total trade: all countries, non-seasonally adjusted, 23 July 2020 (current prices, including precious metals)
European Commission, 2019 Report on Implementation of EU Free Trade Agreements 1 January 2018 – 31 December 2018
EU trade agreements database (accessed November 2020)
Generalised Scheme of Preferences
For 70 vulnerable, developing countries, the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences removed import duties from products from . The aim of GSP is to help developing countries alleviate poverty and create jobs respecting labour and human rights. About a dozen other countries have GSP mechanisms in place.
The EU’s GSP regime offers:
- Standard GSP for low and lower-middle income countries. This means a partial or full removal of customs duties on about two-thirds of tariff lines – (14 countries, excluding Vietnam).
- GSP+: the special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance. It reduces the tariffs on these tariff lines to 0% for vulnerable low and lower-middle income countries that implement 27 international conventions related to human rights, labour rights, protection of the environment and good governance – (8 countries).
- EBA (Everything but Arms): the special arrangement for least-developed countries, providing them with duty-free, quota-free access for all products except arms and ammunition – (48 countries).
As a result of EU trade deals and GSP, 87% of UK goods imports by value in 2017 were tariff-free (see Figure 5.28, based on detailed statistics from Eurostat). The UK Trade Policy Observatory separately provided a top-down estimate of 82%.
Figure 5.28: Effective tariff rates on UK goods imports (2017, by value)
Sources:
UK Trade Policy Observatory, What should we make of the UK’s ‘No Deal’ tariffs?, March 2019
Tariff rate analysis is based on Eurostat data for 2017, chart from Eugene Lynch.