Post-Brexit trade deals for competitive British exports

With the pound sterling at it’s lowest level for decades, UK exports are incredibly good value to overseas buyers, we review the post-Brexit trade deals, to channel the UK’s competitive export sectors.

The UK has signed trade deals and agreements in principle with 71 countries and one with the EU, but the majority of these are rollovers, that copy the terms of deals the UK previously had when it was an EU member.

Despite the US accounting for 17% of total UK trade, President Biden has played down the chances of a UK-US trade deal and Prime Minister Liz Truss has confirmed that any deal could be many years away.

Since Brexit, the UK has pursued its own independent trade deals, most recently signing a deal with New Zealand in February and agreeing a deal with Australia, which should bolster the UK’s chances of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The CPTPP is a trade agreement between 11 countries: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The UK applied to join in February 2021. Negotiations started in September 2021 and the Government says it hopes they will be concluded by the end of 2022.

A deal with Japan was signed in October 2020 and was the first one that differed from the existing EU trade deal.

Agreements with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein were announced in June 2021 and talks with India began in early 2022, although no deal has yet been reached.

There is an existing trade agreement with Canada which largely replicates that which Canada has with the EU. Negotiations for a new UK-Canada trade agreement were launched in March 2022.

Negotiations were launched in May 2022 to update the existing UK-Mexico trade agreement. This largely replicates the agreement Mexico has with the EU.

The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) represents six states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE). The UK currently does not have a free trade agreement with any of these countries. Negotiations started in June 2022.

In April 2022, the Government launched a consultation on a new trade agreement with Switzerland, to update the existing FTA which largely replicates the EU-Switzerland agreement and negotiations are expected to start later in 2022 with Israel.

Over the past four decades Metro has gained essential knowledge and experience in designing and managing supply chains into new international markets, for multiple verticals including retail, fashion, automotive, chemicals, industrial, and manufacturing. 

To review your sourcing options or for advice on entering new markets, please contact Elliot Carlile to discuss your current situation and review options to achieve your export objectives.

No one is better placed to assist, support and deliver your export logistics aspirations than the experienced Metro export team and platform that has already assisted exporters over five decades. Take advantage of our experts for advice and growing your own global markets with slick and fit for purpose supply chains. We can and will assist.

Trade agreements in effect

Agreements with the following countries and trading blocs are in effect. Where the agreement has not yet been ratified by both countries, provisional application or bridging mechanisms have been put in place to ensure continuity of trade.