“Who loves us, Baby?” – Brexit Britain’s Top 25 fastest-growing export markets, ranked

The results will surprise almost everyone - and the EU doesn't come out of this well

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

UK exports to the Rest of the World are growing much faster than to the EU

In this exclusive report, the Facts4EU.Org think tank reveals the results of a deep-dive into the latest official export figures for goods and services from the Office for National Statistics, released last week. We wanted to know which were Brexit Britain’s fastest-growing export markets since the EU Referendum and our analysis therefore covers the 8-year period from 2016 to 2023.

The results certainly could not have been predicted by us. We believe our readers – and GB News’ viewers, listeners and readers - will be astonished.

In this report we look at which global markets for UK goods and services have been growing fastest. In Part II we will show the latest rankings for the Top 30 largest customers for the UK’s output last year.

A Brexit Facts4EU.Org 'Brexports' special series
The independent UK selling to the world

PART I (This report) - Brexit Britain’s fastest growing export markets for goods and services, 2016 – 2024
PART II - Brexit Britain’s biggest customers last year (2023)
PART III - Post-Brexit, UK exports to Trump’s America grew 57% faster than exports to the EU
PART IV - UK now has EIGHT trade deals with US states - More to come in President Trump's America?
PART V - The future : Is Starmer's government fixated on pivoting back to the EU and missing a huge opportunity?

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Increase in annual exports of UK’s goods and services by country, 2016 – 2023

1. The UK's Top 25 fastest-growing export markets

Six of them are members of the Commonwealth. Only five of them are members of the EU.

  1. Guyana : 880.2%
  2. Gibraltar : 166.4%
  3. India : 159.7%
  4. Luxembourg : 148.8%
  5. Uganda : 146.8%
  6. Nigeria : 115.7%
  7. Ireland : 86.8%
  8. Jordan : 85.7%
  9. Lithuania : 85.3%
  10. North Macedonia : 84.7%
  11. Brazil : 83.5%
  12. Philippines : 81.5%
  13. Taiwan : 79.5%
  14. Botswana : 78.7%
  15. Croatia : 75.9%
  16. Colombia : 70.1%
  17. USA : 69.6%
  18. Qatar : 68.7%
  19. Ukraine : 68.3%
  20. Iraq : 66.6%
  21. Vietnam : 66.5%
  22. Hong Kong : 65.8%
  23. Singapore : 64.7%
  24. Hungary : 62.6%
  25. China : 62.3%

[Source: Office for National Statistics, Oct 2024, not adjusted for inflation.]

Note: To provide a more meaningful picture, countries with 2023 UK exports of less than £0.5bn have been excluded. This helps to remove distortions from single one-off export orders to small states.

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2024 - click to enlarge

2. UK exports to the Rest of the World are growing much faster than to the EU

  • EU27 : 44.2% increase
  • Rest of World : 53.7% increase

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2024 - click to enlarge

The UK's exports to the rest of the world have been growing almost 22% faster than to the EU27 countries.

The Rt Hon Sir John Redwood commented on this report

"Great news that UK total exports are up by a half since 2016 Brexit with a 44% rise to the EU and a 54% increase to the Rest of the World.

"There have been fast growth rates to the huge markets of India, the US, Brazil and China with even faster growth to Guyana and Gibraltar. Why did we hear so many wrong forecasts of how our trade would fall on Brexit? Our services are the biggest strength and they will be helped by new UK trade deals that make the sale of services easier."

- The Rt Hon Sir John Redwood, commenting to Facts4EU.Org, 30 Oct 2024

Eight years of this history gives a good understanding

The annual figures for the UK’s exports of goods and services vary in each period, so we have used the last eight years in order to even this out. The results therefore represent the last eight years since the British people voted to leave the European Union, in the largest democratic vote in British history.

Too often, reports on the UK’s exports – particularly from organisations in support of rejoining the EU – focus on goods. The UK’s economy is essentially services-based, to the tune of over 80% of GDP. We have therefore used the latest official figures for the exports of both goods and services. Whilst the numbers for services are often subject to revision, we have shown the trends over eight years, which give a good feel for the direction of travel.

In short, the export profile for both goods and services of the UK is changing.

The EU’s Single Market

For years we have been told that the EU’s Single Market was essential to guarantee the UK’s exporters could continue to sell their goods and services.

Firstly, the Single Market never functioned properly for services, as we have reported on many times before. Secondly, our research shows that the UK’s sales of goods to the EU has held up, despite no longer being a member of the EU’s precious Single Market.

Observations

The world doesn’t stand still. The fortunes of world economies flux as we have seen recently in Germany, the EU’s No.1 economy. Germany is now facing its second year of recession.

Our analysis shows that the ingenuity and energy of British entrepreneurs remains undimmed, despite what many people feel has been an unfavourable climate induced by government policies.

Quite how Wednesday’s budget will affect all of this remains to be seen but whatever the effects, these will be home-grown and nothing to do with the opportunities presented by Brexit.

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Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Mon 04 Nov 2024

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