London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2025

UK exports to EU fell by £20bn last year, new ONS data shows

UK exports to EU fell by £20bn last year, new ONS data shows

Figures show Brexit compounding Covid disruption, with clothing exports plunging 60%, vegetables down 40% and cars 25%

UK exports of goods to the EU have fallen by £20bn compared with the last period of stable trade with Europe, according to official figures marking the first full year since Brexit.

Numbers released on Friday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the combined impact of the pandemic and Britain’s exit from the single market caused a 12% fall in exports between January and December last year compared with 2018.

Highlighting the disproportionate impact of leaving the EU, exports to the rest of the world excluding the 27-nation bloc dropped by a much smaller £10bn, or about 6% compared with 2018 levels.

The ONS compared trade performance against figures from three years ago because that was the last year before distortions caused by firms stockpiling ahead of Brexit deadlines and the spread of Covid-19.

Despite the disruption, the EU remains the UK’s largest trading partner. However, for the first time since comparable records began in 1997, the UK now spends more importing goods from the rest of the world than it does from the EU.

UK goods imported from the EU were down almost 17%, or about £45bn, compared with 2018. In comparison, imports from the rest of the world increased by almost 13%, or about £28bn.


With the EU accounting for just over half of UK exports worldwide, economists said Brexit was serving as an extra headwind for Britain, compounding the disruption from Covid being felt across advanced economies. “UK exporters are continuing to lose market share,” said Gabriella Dickens, an economist at the consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Although trade levels have picked up in recent months, data from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis show that real goods exports from advanced economies were 3.8% above their 2018 average in November, outpacing the UK.

The hardest-hit commodities recorded dramatic falls. Outbound shipments of clothing and footwear to the EU were both down by almost 60% compared with 2018. Food and live animal exports – for which more stringent border checks are required – were down almost 18%, while vegetable exports dropped by almost 40%. Shipments of cars to the EU, heavily disrupted by global supply chain issues and Covid, were down by a quarter.

Guillermo Larbalestier, a trade economist at the University of Sussex, said the drop in vegetable exports was probably linked to a fall in the number of seasonal workers available to pick and process crops, more burdensome paperwork and the difficulty in exporting perishable goods in the face of extended delays at the border.

Clothing exports have been affected because a high proportion of garments sold by UK retailers are made in Asia or the US, making them ineligible for the tariffs negotiated in the post-Brexit trade deal.


However, the latest figures do suggest a recovery from the worst of the Brexit damage seen in January 2021, just after Britain’s departure, when exports to the EU plunged by 40%.

According to the latest figures, UK exports to the EU were about £200m higher in December 2021 than the same month in 2018, but much of this was driven by an increase in wholesale gas prices on international energy markets.

Business leaders have warned that border restrictions and reams of red tape have pushed up costs and added to delivery times, permanently undermining the competitiveness of UK goods on the continent.

Sixty-seven percent of firms experienced a challenge when exporting and 72% when importing in the last month, according to ONS surveys.

“There is a lot more friction on trade, which you would expect to have a more medium-to long-term impact,” said Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the ONS.

Gareth Thomas, the shadow international trade minister, said the government had exaggerated the benefits of trade deals with countries outside the EU that have yet to be negotiated. “Ministers are not doing enough to support our exporters in markets outside Europe, while the deal they negotiated with the EU has led to long lorry queues into Dover, a big increase in red tape and a significant decline in trade,” he said.

A UK government spokesperson said: “UK goods exports to EU nations were 4% higher last year compared with 2020. However, as the ONS itself recognises, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, global recession and supply chain disruption, have caused higher levels of volatility in recent statistics. It is therefore still too early to draw any firm conclusions on the long-term impacts of our new trading relationship with the EU.

“We are continuing to ensure that businesses get the support they need to trade effectively with Europe.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
×