Revealed: Brexit Britain is worth more to the EU than massive China

The EU sells 29% more goods to the UK than to its “Top Trading Partner”

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2021

UK’s population is only 4.8% of China’s, yet Brexit Brits buy far more from the EU than the Chinese do

These days, China tops the EU's ‘bestsellers table’ produced by the EU Commission on a monthly basis. China is described as the EU’s top trading partner, but what is the reality behind the figures? Whose market is the bigger for the EU, China’s or the UK’s?

Facts4EU.Org’s analysis of the latest trade figures published by the EU last Friday clearly shows that Brexit Britain is a significantly larger market for EU goods than China. In fact the EU27 sold 29% more to the UK in the last 12 months than it did to China. This is despite the fact that the UK only has 4.8% of the population of the much larger Asian country.

In short, the Brexit British are far fewer in numbers than the Chinese, but we buy far more from the EU.

Revealed: EU’s “Top Trading Partner” is way behind the UK as the biggest market for EU companies

The simple, but awkward, fact for the EU Commission is that Brexit Britain far out-paces China as an export market. Below Facts4EU.Org exposes the brutal facts.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

95% fewer people than China, but Brexit Britons buy more from the EU than the Chinese do

(Latest official EU Commission figures, 12 mths to end-Aug 2021)

EU27 companies sell 29.2% more goods to the UK than to China
EU’s goods sales to UK: €287.5bn (£252.2bn pounds)
EU’s goods sales to China: €222.4bn (£195.1bn pounds)

So how can the EU possibly describe China as its “Top Trading Partner”?

The reason the EU puts China at the top of its ‘bestsellers’ table is not because China buys more from the EU than the UK does. It is because China sells far more to the EU than the UK does.

The total trade between two countries (or in this case one country – China - and one wannabe country – the EU) is the sum of imports and exports. Using this measure, China does indeed top the UK. This measure, however, disguises a very inconvenient truth for the EU.

The bulk of the total trade between the EU and China is one-way, and that’s very heavily in China’s favour.

The EU ‘makes’ £120bn from UK and ‘loses’ £175bn to China

The EU’s trade with the United Kingdom is highly profitable, as we showed in our report on Monday. It sells the UK £120.5bn per annum more than it buys. Conversely, the EU’s trade with China is the opposite. It sells China £175bn less than it buys.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

In balance of payments terms, for the EU the difference between trading with the UK and trading with China is a staggering £295.5bn per annum

EU’s trade deficit with China: -£175.0 bn
EU’s trade surplus with UK: +£120.5 bn
Total difference: £295.5 bn

A troubling fact for the EU

The EU’s annual trade deficit with China is equivalent to its entire trade surplus with the UK
and with all other countries in the world - COMBINED.

The EU Commission’s hypocrisy and double standards - exposed

The EU has refused to accept UK standards on everything from medicines to pets to financial services, despite the fact that almost nothing has changed since Brexit and the standards are essentially the same. In addition, the UK is a democracy whose legal system is admired and copied around the world, and with workers’ rights guaranteed and human rights respected.

When it comes to China, however, the EU seems happy to let Chinese companies sell into the Single Market despite a litany of very serious failures on many levels. From forced labour camps, to genocide, to the unilateral abrogation of international law, to the blacklisting of MPs and MEPs who dare to speak out, the list of China’s faults is legion.

At the end of last year the EU Commission agreed a major investment deal with China. The only reason that this has been blocked from becoming a treaty is because the EU Parliament has vetoed it. They did so because of China’s record on the issues we mentioned above, as well as many others. This deal - negotiated and promoted by the Commission - is therefore effectively on permanent hold and the Commission’s plans to do more business with China lie in tatters.

EU Commission’s No.1 priority is its ‘Green Deal’ – yet EU’s biggest importer is the world’s biggest polluter

The world’s latest climate jamboree, COP26, kicks off in Glasgow at the end of next week. The EU will of course be there, in numbers. China's Xi Jinping will not, on the other hand, be attending, as Facts4EU.Org predicted months ago.

As shown in recent Facts4EU.Org reports here and here. China’s record on climate change is as bad as its record on so many other issues dear to the EU technocrats’ hearts.

All countries importing from China (including the UK) are in effect importing pollution, but this pollution conveniently never shows in countries’ carbon emissions figures as it is created in China and from Chinese-owned plants in developing countries.

The EU’s imports from China are now at a very high level. Does the EU have any concerns about its growing reliance on such a tainted regime?

Observations

During the EU Referendum debate and in all the years following, Remain-Rejoin campaigners have talked a great deal about trade. Brexiteers have always focused more on issues of sovereignty.

On sovereignty, Remainer-Rejoiners know they are not on firm ground. As a result they generally deflect onto trade. Unfortunately on trade they have been allowed to get away with a constant barrage of claims which have no basis in facts or reality.

Over the past six years Facts4EU.Org has produced a deluge of reports based on official figures – mostly from the EU itself – which have disproved the Remain campaigners’ claims. Our reports today and on Monday are but two more nails in the coffin of Project Fear.

These will not prevent Remainers from repeating their wild accusations, but at least Brexiteers have a wealth of additional ammunition to bust the myths.

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[ Sources: EU Commission latest trade figures to end-Aug 2021 ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 22 Oct 2021

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Reader Comments 10

1. Jon Phillips , Friday, October 22, 2021, 08:38:

I hope we charge the EU Import Duty and VAT on EVERYTHING we buy from them, we all want the "Level Playing Field" the EU negotiators so desired after Brexit!!

2. Leo , Friday, October 22, 2021, 11:06:

Your "research" shows a failure to grasp things. So I'll put it to you this way; what the figures show is the common sense in trading most with your neighbours. As this changes over time due to your vote, these figures will change drastically. Choosing to import from as far away as Australia or NZ, where a single delivery takes over 50 days is just not smart - but that is Brexit Britain in a nutshell.

3. Andy , Friday, October 22, 2021, 11:56:

Yes Leo, you do fail to 'grasp things'. One of the reasons for the huge trade inbalance is because the EU (19 of its members) are using an artificial currency. Research shows that if Germany had a currency appropriate to her circumstances (and using the USA Dollar as a yardstick) the true rate of exchange would be about $ = 2.36 Euros. The current rate is 1.16. So Germany benefits from a currency half the value it ought to be. The UK would be perfectly entitled under WTO rules to impose anti-dumping duties on German cars for example and one wonders how much market share would remain if we did so. Similarly if you do the same calculations for Greece the optimum value for the Euro for them would be about 35 Cents. There is little wonder that the Greek economy is in ruins. The Germans and by extension the EU are running a classic mercantilist trade policy and it is time the rest of the world woke up to this and addressed it.

4. Ashley Great Britain , Friday, October 22, 2021, 11:58:

2 Leo.
So the EU is trading most with China,, not its neighbour.
Let me run this by you, see if you can grasp it, what you said in your last two posts makes no sense.

5. Michael Burnhill , Friday, October 22, 2021, 16:51:

Which is why WTO rules make so much sense until the EU offers a propper free trade deal rather than the one sided offering signed up to by BO JO!

6. Leo , Friday, October 22, 2021, 19:58:

4. I only posted once on this page, only because I thought that once would be sufficient for people who knew what they voted for.
These figures include last year before the end of easy trade. There was massive stockpiling before the end of year deadline.
From next year on, the EU will not be trading as much with it's neighbour, as previously, because it's neighbour voted NOT to trade with it. How is this not obvious?
The EU has had to turn to other routes just as the UK will have to do the same. They seem to be pivoting their alternate trading partner rather quickly - how are we doing so far? No deal with Australia - only a handshake, or USA (as Obama warned) or Canada (they have their own neighbourly agreements).
How much are we trading with our new deals if we can't even fill a few shelves? Maybe it's because most of these places are on the other side of the globe.

7. Robert Mcdonald , Friday, October 22, 2021, 20:17:

Leo seems to hang his argument on distance instead of economics. Trading at a distance just needs planning, and if the trade provides good quality at a good price then that trade is good. Considering we paid c20 billion a year for the so called free trade with the eurocracy then any real free trade agreement is going to be better. Plus let's not forget that our export trade with the eurocracy has, for years, been falling well below that of the real world ... and imports from the eurocracy has been greater than our exports to them for many many years.
All this is highlighted by the hypocrisy of referring to empty shelves .. a problem found much further afield than in the UK .. and will get better as the effects if covid are overcome.

8. Captain Thunderbolt , Saturday, October 23, 2021, 00:53:

@ 7. Robert Mcdonald
You are absolutely correct, it just takes planning after all Australia has been importing for a long time. If they do it right it actully can decrease cost because the item takes weeks to arrive it can act as a temporary storage warehouse so you can have smaller storage if needed
It works both ways

9. Ashley Great Britain , Saturday, October 23, 2021, 08:19:

6 Leo.
Was referring to your post on the poles apart article too.
It's a shame we can't agree on much, you seem decent enough.
The thing is you have a fundamental different view of our exit from the EU and nothing will change that.
It certainly isn't all about trade.
Trade will sort itself out in the coming years between UK-Eu.
The whole world is experiencing shortages of drivers and supplies.
I would accept far more if it meant our freedom and ability to run our own lives.
We have always been happy with immigration but it needs to be controlled.
We will always be neighbours with the nations of Europe and will get along accordingly.
There's nothing wrong with being strong and independent, This has been the back bone of great nations and civilisations for millennia.
The EU are on a different path and they are bitter that once again Britain doesn't want to follow.
Our magnificent vote to leave the European Union was the best thing Britain has done in a long time.

10. ste , Saturday, October 23, 2021, 17:37:

LEO, dear chap i KNOW what i voted for - it was ELECTED ACCOUNTABLE leaders !!, not dictators, YOU might be happy for a few magic beans whilst the goose stepping m 0 rons pass by but democracy matters most !!

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