Trade flows between the US, UK and EU27: what goes where?

Donald Trump is President of the United States and the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union. It is reasonable to expect disturbances in the global trade order. Prime Minister May’s meeting with President Trump puts trade relations between the EU, the US and the UK in the spotlight. To inform this debate, it is certainly useful to measure the forces at play on the international trade chessboard.

The chord diagram below shows total imports and exports for the three considered countries/blocs. Bilateral trade flows are indicated by the ‘chord’ connecting two trade partners, with the width of the chord displaying the value of the flow. Data are based on UN Comtrade and refer to trade in goods among the world’s 43 largest economies.

Trade flows between the EU, the US and the UK

 

From the British perspective, the other 27 members of the EU represent the largest destination market for exports and the most important source of imports. However, bilateral trade in goods between UK and the rest of the EU is not balanced. As a matter of fact, the UK ran a trade deficit with the rest of the EU amounting to US$ 151 billion in 2015. This deficit has increased from US$ 139 billion to US$ 151 billion since 2014 (based on import statistics).

The UK’s trade flows with the US are much smaller than with the EU27. The UK’s goods exports to the US are only one quarter of what it exports to the EU27. And imports from the US are about one sixth of imports from the EU27.

From the US perspective, the UK is a small trading partner – also in relation to the EU27. Among its trade with the largest 43 economies, only 4.9% of US goods exports go to the UK. 20.8% go to the rest of the EU.