The UK government is committed to kickstarting the nation’s economic growth, but recently released trade figures from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) indicate a substantial journey ahead, according to leading audit, tax, and business advisory firm Blick Rothenberg.

Simon Sutcliffe, Customs & Excise Duty Partner at the firm, commented: “Trade statistics for 2023, published by HMRC yesterday, show that the UK remains a predominantly service-based economy in international trade, with imports and exports of services dwarfing the movement of goods. The total value of exported services in 2023 stood at £187 billion, whereas imports of services were £423 billion.”

He added: “In some notable industries, the exports by sector exceed imports in value. Importantly, the main industries where imports exceed exports are agriculture and food, and the oil, energy, and petroleum sectors. This may feed opposition claims that the UK remains food and energy insecure.”

Sutcliffe continued: “Although reducing import rates in the agriculture and food, and oil, energy, and petroleum sectors is important both politically and economically, the services sector remains crucial to delivering economic growth. Hopefully, the government will give sufficient focus in future trade deals to matters affecting this part of the economy, such as regulatory frameworks, common standards, and access to talent and skills.”

He highlighted that the United States and China, aside from the EU bloc countries, remain the UK’s largest individual trading partners. “The US is the largest export market at £57.7 billion and import market at £63.3 billion for goods and services. The US is closely followed by China, with an export value of £27.3 billion and imports at £62.2 billion,” he said.

Sutcliffe noted that this situation puts pressure on the Prime Minister over how to handle trade policies with these major economies.

He added: “The EU exports to the UK are valued at £189.1 billion, whereas imports are valued at £326 billion. This is one of the largest trade imbalances in the report and perhaps indicates the struggle that UK businesses, whose sole overseas marketplace prior to Brexit was the EU, have faced post-Brexit in dealing with new administrative and customs burdens that have impacted how and with whom they do business in the EU.”