Which EU countries bought most from the UK last year?

These results might surprise readers, but we will explain why

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

Facts4EU reveals the top EU buyers of the UK’s goods in 2023

Based on the latest data from the Commission, we present the UK’s best customers from the EU's empire, by country. We think some of these results will surprise readers.

This is despite the fact that the EU’s imports from around the world overall have been falling. As the EU has experienced economic difficulties, it has been buying less from other countries.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Purchases of UK goods by EU country, 2023

All figures in euros billions

Netherlands : € 31.85
Germany : € 30.52
Ireland : € 26.89
France : € 23.93
Belgium : € 19.41
Spain : € 10.29
Italy : € 8.73
Sweden : € 5.70
Poland : € 4.24
Czechia : € 2.62
Denmark : € 2.51
Austria : € 2.22
Finland : € 1.61
Cyprus : € 1.31
Slovakia : € 1.29
Portugal : € 1.15
Romania : € 1.12
Hungary : € 1.04
Greece : € 0.92
Lithuania : € 0.85
Malta : € 0.41
Bulgaria : € 0.40
Latvia : € 0.24
Slovenia : € 0.24
Estonia : € 0.19
Luxembourg : € 0.17
Croatia : € 0.14
TOTAL EU27 : € 179.98 bn

[Source : Eurostat (official EU Commission statistics agency), 13 May 2024.]

Some of the above, whilst coming from official figures, is of course ridiculous

The figures for both the Netherlands and Belgium are inflated because a large amount of UK goods traffic goes through those countries because of their ports, for onward shipment throughout the EU but also for trans-shipment around the world.

The reality is that a significant proportion of UK exports to the EU are not to the EU at all, but to the rest of the world. HMRC once estimated this to be around 4%. We have always believed the figure to be much higher.

So who are really the UK’s best customers?

Our best estimation of the true top 5 customers for UK products are :-

Germany
Republic of Ireland
France
Spain
Italy

Observations

It is naturally important to stress that the UK’s exports of goods, whilst important, are a small fraction of the UK’s economy which is based around services.

As we reported recently, Brexit Britain’s global exports have soared by nearly 40% since leaving the EU. Total UK exports climbed by £240 billion in just four years, defying Project Fear completely.

The EU’s trade deals always focused on goods, which were the mainstay of the German economy. Services were barely mentioned. Now, Germany’s manufacturing sector is in trouble as we have reported recently.

One of the many benefits of Brexit is that the UK has been free to do trade deals across the globe which truly reflect British interests.

We must get reports like this out there

Reports like the one above take far longer to research, write and produce than many people realise. If they were easy, readers would see other organisations also producing these daily. However, there’s little point in the Facts4EU.Org team working long hours, seven days-a-week, if we lack the resources to promote them effectively – to the public, to MPs, and to the media. This is where you come in, dear reader.

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[ Sources: EU Commission | ONS ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 14 May 2024

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Reader Comments 3

1. Ashley Great Britain , Tuesday, May 14, 2024, 06:06:

The very fact that the UK is now controlling its world trade is all the good news you need.
It's a big one but only part of what Brexit was all about.
The greatest feeling is that the longer we are outside the EU the more permanent it will be.
Rejoiners don't grasp, That as each month passes, our independence is cemented more.
I don't even think there will ever be a referendum on rejoining.
We'll get better and the EU will fail.

2. Sparky , Tuesday, May 14, 2024, 08:16:

What’s conspicuous by its absence is a comparison of pre and post Brexit apart from a discreet mention of an increase since leaving the EU which coincided with Covid.
.
Meanwhile law allowing asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda has been disapplied by court in Northern Ireland. NI slips further away from the UK as a direct result of Brexit.
.
3 AGB. The Brexitears dream of UK leaving the EU will lead to the EU collapse.

3. Johh Jones , Wednesday, May 15, 2024, 05:33:

"..The figures for both the Netherlands and Belgium are inflated because a large amount of UK goods traffic goes through those countries because of their ports, for onward shipment throughout the EU but also for trans-shipment around the world..."
If reports like this are going to be published, dismissing exports to NL & Belgium to the tune of c. €51bn is worrying, it undermines what is anyway, an already fairly bland posting even for Facts4eu.
At least you could pretend to accept maybe less understand the trade concept called " the Rotterdam effect".
As a basic bit of research tells us that the "Rotterdam effect " is a trade distortion effect also including Antwerp.
"The UK statistical authorities have attempted to estimate the significance of the distortion caused by the Rotterdam effect. It has analysed the effect by making two assumptions. The first extreme assumption, which can be applied to the UK, is that all exports to the Netherlands are re-exported to non-EU countries and all imports from the Netherlands have their origin outside the EU. If this is the case, then the HMRC estimates that the actual value of UK trade with the EU is 8% lower than official figures suggest (and UK trade with the non-EU world is 8% more than is currently officially stated.) If true, it tends to strengthen the argument that the EU is less significant to the UK than officially recognised. However, it is clear that a proportion of UK trade is directly with the Netherlands. Hence, the HMRCs second assumption is that only 50% of UK trade with the Netherlands is related to non-EU countries. Although they made no claim for overall effect of this, we could argue that this means that the 8% distortion could be halved."
So, all in all discounting €51bn of trade in export Goods between UK & NL & Belgium isn't, in hindsight, the most intelligent analysis I've ever seen.

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