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1. Summary

This publication details the extent to which preferential tariffs have been used for the United Kingdom (UK) trade in goods with partners in 2023 for:

• UK imports from non-EU partners
• Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) imports from EU member states^{[footnote 1]}
• Great Britain exports to EU member states
• UK exports to non-EU agreement partners^{[footnote 2]}

Preferential tariffs are reduced rates of customs duty offered under preferential trade agreements (PTA), the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), and the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS)^{[footnote 3]} between the UK and its partner countries or territories.

Preference Utilisation Rates (PURs) measure the extent to which tariff preferences provided by trade agreements are being used, for goods where preferential tariff rates are available and lower than the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) rate^{[footnote 4]}. A country or territory’s PUR, normally presented as a percentage, reflects the value of goods imported under trade preferences as a share of the total value of imports eligible for preferences.

PURs for UK imports on a country of origin basis^{[footnote 5]} is drawn from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) imports by preference data. For exports, the publication relies on data provided by free trade agreement (FTA) partners who have agreed to exchange the data required for this analysis, which for this release is as follows:

• all EU27 member states
• Albania
• Canada
• Chile
• Costa Rica
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Iceland
• Japan
• Kosovo
• Nicaragua
• North Macedonia
• Norway
• Panama
• Serbia
• Switzerland and Liechtenstein
• Turkey
• Ukraine

PURs can differ for several reasons including:

• length of entry into force of the FTA
• transaction value
• preferential margin
• compliance and administration costs to the trader
• non-direct consignment route
• awareness of the FTA
• product specific rules of origin

The exact reasons behind the preference utilisation cannot be determined by the PUR data itself and will only be known by the trader.

See the accompanying technical annex for further detail on this publication.

2. Preference utilisation headlines in 2023

39 trade agreements were in force between the UK and its trading partners by the end of 2023, including the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), as well as the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP)/DCTS. Australia and New Zealand were the 2 new FTAs that entered into force in 2023.

88.1% of goods imported into the UK made use of preferences where one was available, compared to 86.6% in 2022.

86.6% of goods entered the UK tariff free^{[footnote 6]} – 59% did so under MFN terms, 26.3% did so under FTA preferences, and 1.3% did so under GSP or DCTS preferences – compared to 86.3% in 2022.

80.8% of goods exported from Great Britain into the EU27 made use of preferences where one was available.

90.4% of Great Britain goods entered EU27 partners tariff free – either through preferential terms (40.3%) or MFN terms (50.1%).

91.7% of goods exported from UK to Turkey (the non-EU partner with the highest value of total preference eligible exports from the UK) made use of preferences where one was available.

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT).

3. UK imports by preference

Table 1: preference utilisation of top 10 non-EU partners where a trade agreement is in effect in 2023, by value of preference eligible imports

Turkey was the top non-EU partner in terms of value of preference eligible imports (£9,343 million) into the UK in 2023, of which £8,541 million of imports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR 91.4%).

Rank	Non-EU partners	Total imports (£ million)	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Preference use imports (£ million)	PUR
1	Turkey	12,494	9,343	8,541	91.4%
2	Japan	11,818	4,313	3,124	72.4%
3	Switzerland	10,865	4,165	3,261	78.3%
4	South Korea	6,370	3,253	2,967	91.2%
5	Vietnam	7,409	3,183	1,551	48.7%
6	South Africa	7,326	2,198	2,001	91.1%
7	Morocco	1,813	1,637	1,386	84.7%
8	Mexico	4,749	1,627	1,028	63.2%
9	Norway	25,924	1,282	1,199	93.5%
10	Egypt	1,353	996	908	91.2%
Not applicable	Total	118,427	38,731	31,220	80.6%.

Source: DBT.

80.6% of goods imported into the UK from a non-EU partner made use of preferences where one was available, compared to 76.8% in 2022.

89.9% of UK goods entered from non-EU trade agreement partners tariff free – either through FTA terms (24.4%), GSP or DCTS terms (0.1%) or MFN terms (65.4%) – compared to 91.1% in 2022.

Table 2: preference utilisation of Great Britain’s top 10 EU27 partners in 2023, by value of preference eligible imports

Germany was the top EU27 partner in terms of value of preference eligible imports (£32,304 million) into Great Britain in 2023, of which £28,600 million of imports used a preferential tariff rate (a PUR of 88.5%).

Rank	EU27 Partners	Total imports (£ million)	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Preference use imports (£ million)	PUR
1	Germany	57,826	32,304	28,600	88.5%
2	France	31,616	15,814	14,504	91.7%
3	Italy	23,746	13,634	12,336	90.5%
4	Spain	20,645	13,079	12,541	95.9%
5	Netherlands	20,527	10,440	9,963	95.4%
6	Poland	15,011	8,832	7,969	90.2%
7	Belgium	14,049	7,563	6,919	91.5%
8	Ireland	12,036	5,923	5,608	94.7%
9	Czechia	8,067	4,821	4,198	87.1%
10	Slovakia	4,817	4,085	3,837	93.9%
Not applicable	Total	246,911	135,284	123,088	91.0%

Source: DBT.

91.0% of goods imported into Great Britain from an EU27 partner made use of preferences where one was available, compared to 90.3% in 2022.

94.9% of Great Britain goods entered from the EU27 tariff free – either through FTA terms (51.6%) or MFN terms (43.3%) – compared to 94.7% in 2022.

Across all trading partners, 148 countries or territoriesÌýmade use of a preferential tariff when importing into the UK, whether under a trade agreement or GSP or DCTS, or other arrangement ^{[footnote 7]}.

4.4% of goods entering the UK in this period made use of inward or outward processing relief.

4. UK exports by preference

4.1 Non-EU

The publication relies on data provided by FTA partners. Consequently, the scope on the non-EU export side is limited to those countries or territories that have providedÌýdata. As a result, the release does not include aÌýnon-EU total as the release does not cover all non-EU partners where the UK has a preferential tariff.

Additionally, because the list of non-EU partners who have provided UK export data for analysis differs each year, tables covering non-EU exports (such as Table 3) should not be directly compared to the equivalent table in other versions of this publication.

For UK exports the PUR is calculated using UK calculation methodology, therefore may differ from the partners’ calculated PUR.

Table 3: preference utilisation of UK’s top 10 non-EU partners where a trade agreement is in effect in 2023, by value of preference eligible exports

For the non-EU partners that have currently shared 2023 data with the UK, Turkey had the highest value of total preference eligible exports from the UK in 2023 of £2,717 million, of which £2,492 million of exports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR of 91.7%), based on UK analysis of data received from Turkey customs service.

Rank	Non-EU Partners	Total exports (£ million)	Preference eligible exports (£ million)	Preference use exports (£ million)	PUR
1	Turkey	4,807	2,717	2,492	91.7%
2	Switzerland	5,664	1,903	842	44.3%
3	Canada	5,439	1,066	827	77.5%
4	Japan	5,588	749	475	63.4%
5	Chile	407	400	237	59.1%
6	Ukraine	876	399	194	48.7%
7	North Macedonia	1,215	256	231	90.2%
8	Serbia	270	249	113	45.4%
9	Costa Rica	147	144	25	17.3%
10	Norway	3,559	64	37	59.0%

Note: data received from 7 additional trading partners can be found in the supplementary file. Table 3 is also not directly comparable to the equivalent table in previous years as the list of non-EU partners who have completed data exchanges varies each year.

Source: DBT, FTA partner country data (see section 1.4 of the technical annex for all sources).

4.2 EU

Table 4: preference utilisation of Great Britain’s top 10 EU27 partners in 2023, by value of preference eligible exportsÌýÌý

France was the top EU27 partner in terms of Great Britain exports eligible for preferential tariffs in 2023 with £10,822 million, of which £9,400 million of exports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR of 86.9%) based on UK analysis of data received from Eurostat.

Rank	EU27 Partners	Total exports (£ million)	Preference eligible exports (£ million)	Preference use exports (£ million)	PUR
1	France	20,819	10,822	9,400	86.9%
2	Netherlands	27,777	10,783	9,594	89.0%
3	Germany	26,267	10,544	7,927	75.2%
4	Ireland	23,438	8,804	6,886	78.2%
5	Belgium	17,835	7,614	7,183	94.3%
6	Spain	8,951	4,268	3,300	77.3%
7	Italy	7,396	4,106	1,638	39.9%
8	Sweden	4,993	2,082	1,814	87.1%
9	Poland	3,679	1,858	1,503	80.9%
10	Czechia	2,283	1,330	1,004	75.5%
Not applicable	Total	156,957	69,011	55,789	80.8%

Source: DBT, Eurostat.

80.8% of the Great Britain exports to EU27 partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2023.

90.4% of Great Britain goods were exported to EU27 partners tariff free – either through FTA terms (40.3%) or MFN terms (50.1%).

5. PURs by Harmonized Systems (HS) section

The Harmonized System (HS) of tariff nomenclature is an internationally standardised system of names and numbers to classify traded products. This section breaks PURs down into HS sections based on HS2 (chapters) using the HS Nomenclature 2023 edition codes.

5.1 UK imports by HS section

Figure 1: total tariff eligible UK imports from non-EU partners in 2023 by HS section

Transportation equipment made up the largest proportion of UK preference eligible imports (£11,384 million) during this period (29.4%).

HS section	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Imports not eligible for preference (£ million)	‎
Mineral products	589	28,351	Ìý
Machinery and mechanical appliances	4,822	13,679	Ìý
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	265	16,680	Ìý
Transportation equipment	11,384	2,619	Ìý
Chemical products	2,625	5,804	Ìý
Instruments - measuring, musical	1,657	3,506	Ìý
Vegetable products	3,517	1,594	Ìý
Textiles and textile articles	3,856	342	Ìý
Base metals and articles thereof	1,049	2,841	Ìý
Prepared food and beverages	2,873	871	Ìý
Plastics and rubber	2,349	258	Ìý
Animals and animal products	1,137	771	Ìý
Miscellaneous manufactures	568	760	Ìý
Footwear, headgear	1,232	17	Ìý
Paper, printed products	0	723	Ìý
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	217	260	Ìý
Fats and oil	281	133	Ìý
Wood and wood products	70	283	Ìý
Leather and hides	220	6	Ìý
Works of art	0	197	Ìý
Arms and ammunition	21	0	Ìý

Note: HS 98 and 99 not included.ÌýÌý

Source: DBT, HMRC.

Figure 2: preference utilisation rates for UK imports from non-EU partners in 2023, by HS section

Animals and animal products imports into the UK from non-EU partners used the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (95.8%), with £1,137 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £1,090 million imports used a preferential tariff.Ìý

HS section	PUR
Animals and animal products	95.8%
Mineral products	95.4%
Wood and wood products	92.9%
Vegetable products	92.1%
Transportation equipment	91.2%
Base metals and articles thereof	86.5%
Prepared food and beverages	85.9%
Plastics and rubber	81.8%
Instruments - measuring, musical	81.1%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	79.3%
Chemical products	74.0%
Fats and oil	73.6%
Miscellaneous manufactures	73.1%
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	69.3%
Arms and ammunition	68.4%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	68.0%
Footwear, headgear	57.6%
Textiles and textile articles	57.1%
Leather and hides	52.1%

Note: paper, printed products and works of art are not included in the chart as imports of these products were not eligible for preference in 2023. HS 99 not included.ÌýÌý

80.6% of UK imports from non-EU partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2023. The PUR for agricultural imports (HS01 to 24) from non-EU partners was 89.7% and 78.3% for non-agricultural UK imports (HS25 to 97).

Source: DBT, HMRC.

Figure 3: total tariff eligible imports into Great Britain from EU27 partners in 2023, by HS sectionÌý

Transportation equipment made up the largest proportion of Great Britain preference eligible imports (£46,243 million) from EU27 during this period (34.2%).

HS section	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Imports not eligible for preference (£ million)	‎
Transportation equipment	46,243	9,779	Ìý
Machinery and mechanical appliances	13,391	30,641	Ìý
Chemical products	10,361	18,413	Ìý
Prepared food and beverages	22,057	2,444	Ìý
Base metals and articles thereof	4,560	9,893	Ìý
Mineral products	2,168	9,494	Ìý
Plastics and rubber	10,353	699	Ìý
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	596	7,434	Ìý
Animals and animal products	7,187	644	Ìý
Vegetable products	5,602	1,681	Ìý
Instruments - measuring, musical	627	6,210	Ìý
Miscellaneous manufactures	3,080	3,036	Ìý
Paper, printed products	0	5,114	Ìý
Wood and wood products	1,140	2,744	Ìý
Textiles and textile articles	3,541	326	Ìý
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	1,095	2,121	Ìý
Fats and oil	1,276	83	Ìý
Leather and hides	1,023	110	Ìý
Footwear, headgear	896	23	Ìý
Works of art	0	730	Ìý
Arms and ammunition	89	5	Ìý

Note: HS 98 and 99 not included.Ìý

Source: DBT, HMRC.

Figure 4: preference utilisation rates for Great Britain imports from EU27 partners in 2023, by HS section

Animals and animal products imports into Great Britain from EU27 used the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (99.4%), with £7,187 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £7,145 million imports used a preferential tariff.Ìý

HS section	PUR
Animals and animal products	99.4%
Vegetable products	98.9%
Wood and wood products	97.5%
Prepared food and beverages	97.3%
Fats and oil	95.6%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	95.2%
Mineral products	93.4%
Transportation equipment	93.3%
Plastics and rubber	92.6%
Chemical products	91.6%
Arms and ammunition	90.4%
Footwear, headgear	89.1%
Base metals and articles thereof	88.7%
Leather and hides	88.4%
Textiles and textile articles	81.3%
Miscellaneous manufactures	81.1%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	69.6%
Instruments - measuring, musical	63.6%
Pearls, (semi-) precious stones and metals	61.4%

Note: paper, printed products and works of art are not included in the chart as imports of these products were not eligible for preference in 2023. HS99 is not included.

91.0% of Great Britain imports from EU27 partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2023. The PUR for agricultural imports (HS01 to 24) from EU27 partners was 97.9% and 88.5% for non-agricultural Great Britain imports (HS25 to 97).ÌýÌý

Source: DBT, HMRC.

5.2 Great Britain exports by HS section

The following section only covers Great Britain exports by HS section to EU27 partners. The same breakdown cannot be provided for UK exports to all non-EU partners as data is only available for non-EU FTA partners that exchanged the data required for this analysis^{[footnote 8]}. As a result, the release does not include a total by HS section for total non-EU exports as the release does not cover all non-EU partners where the UK has a preferential tariff. For export PURs by non-EU partner by HS chapter, see the export PUR database file.

Figure 5: total tariff eligible exports from Great Britain to EU27 partners in 2023, by HS sectionÌýÌýÌýÌý

Transportation equipment made up the largest share of Great Britain preference eligible exports to the EU27 during this period with a value of £16,128 million (23.4%).

HS section	Preference eligible exports (£ million)	Exports not eligible for preference (£ million)	‎
Mineral products	4,859	28,508	Ìý
Machinery and mechanical appliances	12,948	13,112	Ìý
Transportation equipment	16,128	7,613	Ìý
Chemical products	10,532	11,970	Ìý
Base metals and articles thereof	4,238	5,367	Ìý
Prepared food and beverages	4,672	3,654	Ìý
Plastics and rubber	5,727	954	Ìý
Instruments - measuring, musical	830	4,869	Ìý
Animals and animal products	2,669	1,453	Ìý
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	240	3,709	Ìý
Textiles and textile articles	2,136	682	Ìý
Paper, printed products	0	2,552	Ìý
Miscellaneous manufactures	1,025	863	Ìý
Vegetable products	1,019	429	Ìý
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	794	558	Ìý
Works of art	0	1,045	Ìý
Fats and oil	456	106	Ìý
Wood and wood products	130	257	Ìý
Footwear, headgear	273	109	Ìý
Leather and hides	252	77	Ìý
Arms and ammunition	82	20	Ìý

Note: HS99 not included.

Source: DBT, Eurostat.

Figure 6: preference utilisation rates for Great Britain exports to EU27 partners in 2023, by HS section

Animals and animal products exports from Great Britain into the EU27 used the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (97.9%), with £2,669 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £2,613 million exports used a preferential tariff.ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý

HS section	PUR
Animals and animal products	97.9%
Mineral products	96.8%
Fats and oil	95.0%
Vegetable products	93.9%
Arms and ammunition	89.7%
Prepared food and beverages	88.9%
Chemical products	84.8%
Plastics and rubber	84.5%
Transportation equipment	84.4%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	82.1%
Wood and wood products	78.9%
Base metals and articles thereof	77.8%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	69.2%
Miscellaneous manufactures	66.2%
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	53.2%
Textiles and textile articles	52.6%
Instruments - measuring, musical	48.2%
Leather and hides	30.0%
Footwear, headgear	21.8%

Note: paper, printed products and works of art are not included in the chart as exports of these products were not eligible for preference in 2023. HS99 is not included.ÌýÌýÌýÌý

Source: DBT, Eurostat.ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý

80.8% of the Great Britain exports to EU27 partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2023. The PUR for agricultural exports (HS01 to 24) to EU27 partners was 92.5% and 79.1% for non-agricultural Great Britain exports (HS25 to 97).ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý

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