Value of trade in goods exported from the UK 2023, by leading commodities

Cars were the most valuable type of commodity exported from the United Kingdom in 2023, with exports of this commodity valued at approximately 36.6 billion British pounds. Mechanical power generators were the second-most valuable commodity in 2023, with an export value of around 34.5 billion pounds in this year. By comparison, the most valuable import commodity was also cars, amounting to over 40.2 billion British pounds. The next most valuable import commodity was refined oil at over 28.2 million pounds in this year. 

Brexit and EU trade

At the start of 2021, the United Kingdom exited both the European Single Market and the European Customs Union, with the UK's trading relationship with the EU now determined by a new Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). Although the TCA continued tariff and quota-free goods trade between the EU and UK, a number of customs checks came into force, increasing trade friction between the two parties. The status of Northern Ireland in the initial agreement was also different than the rest of the UK. Goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain were initially subject to customs checks, in order to prevent customs checks occurring at the border with the Republic of Ireland. In February 2023, it was announced that under a new EU-UK agreement called the Windsor Framework, some goods entering Northern Ireland from Britain will be subject to fewer checks.

UK main trading partners

Although the share of both imports and exports from the European Union has been declining recently, the single market is still by far the UK's main trading partner. In terms of individual countries, the United States was the main export partner in 2023 at 15.7 percent of all exports, while Germany had the highest share of UK imports at 12.7 percent in 2023. A main argument of the Leave vote, was that the UK should seek to improve up its trade with the rest of the world, outside of Europe. The success of this 'Global Britain' strategy, depends on the UK significantly scaling up its trade with other continents, with countries outside of Europe still responsible for far less trade than European ones.