1. Summary

This publication details the extent to which preferential tariffs have been utilised for the United Kingdom (UK) trade in goods with partners in 2022 for:

• UK imports from non-EU partners
• Great Britain (GB) imports from EU member states^{[footnote 1]}
• GB exports to EU member states
• UK exports to non-EU agreement partners

Preferential tariffs are reduced rates of Customs Duty offered under preferential trade agreements (PTA) and the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) 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 2]}. 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 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:

• Canada
• Chile
• Costa Rica
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Iceland
• Japan
• Kosovo
• Nicaragua
• Norway
• Panama
• South Korea
• Serbia
• Singapore
• Switzerland and Liechtenstein
• Turkey
• Ukraine
• Vietnam
• all EU27 member states

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 2022:

36 trade agreements were in force between the UK and it’s trading partners including the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), as well as the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP).

86.6% of goods imported into the UK made use of preferences where one was available.

86.3% of goods entered the UK tariff free^{[footnote 3]} – 62.1% did so under MFN terms, 22.8% did so under FTA preferences, and 1.4% did so under GSP preferences.   

82.8% of goods exported from Great Britain (GB) into the EU27 made use of preferences where one was available.

63.9% of goods exported from UK to South Korea (the partner with the highest value of total preference eligible exports from the UK) made use of preferences where one was available.

89.0% of goods exported from UK to Turkey made use of preferences where one was available. Turkey had the highest value of UK exports that used a preference (£2.5 billion).

92.6% of GB goods entered EU27 partners tariff free – either through preferential terms (33.8%) or MFN terms (58.8%).    

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 2022, by value of preference eligible imports

Turkey was the top non-EU partner in terms of value of preference eligible imports (£9,570 million) into the UK in 2022, of which £8,813 million of imports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR of 92.1%).                                                                                                          

Rank	Non-EU Partners	Total imports (£ million)	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Preference use imports (£ million)	PUR
1	Turkey	12,826	9,570	8,813	92.1%
2	Switzerland	11,511	4,648	2,626	56.5%
3	Japan	10,623	3,692	2,355	63.8%
4	Vietnam	7,337	3,452	1,549	44.9%
5	South Korea	6,893	3,279	2,940	89.7%
6	South Africa	6,426	2,026	1,859	91.8%
7	Mexico	4,442	1,387	814	58.7%
8	Morocco	1,491	1,340	1,116	83.3%
9	Norway	43,473	1,328	1,248	94.0%
10	Egypt	1,651	1,143	1,088	95.2%
Not applicable	Total for all Non-EU partners	136,531	38,147	29,308	76.8%

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT)                                                                       

76.8% of goods imported into the UK from a non-EU partner made use of preferences where one was available.

91.1% of UK goods entered from non-EU trade agreement partners tariff free – either through FTA terms (19.9%), GSP terms (0.2%) or MFN terms (70.9%).

Table 2: Preference utilisation of Great Britain’s top 10 EU27 partners in 2022, by value of preference eligible imports            

Germany was the top EU27 partner in terms of value of preference eligible imports (£29,583 million) into GB in 2022, of which £25,861m of imports used a preferential tariff rate (a PUR of 87.4%).

Rank	EU27 Partners	Total imports (£ million)	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Preference use imports (£ million)	PUR
1	Germany	54,722	29,583	25,861	87.4%
2	France	26,980	13,678	12,393	90.6%
3	Italy	23,876	13,493	12,173	90.2%
4	Spain	18,591	11,125	10,475	94.2%
5	Netherlands	22,197	11,066	10,607	95.8%
6	Poland	14,038	8,203	7,460	90.9%
7	Belgium	15,849	7,073	6,746	95.4%
8	Ireland	10,368	4,695	4,290	91.4%
9	Czech Republic	7,249	4,059	3,607	88.9%
10	Slovakia	4,003	3,302	3,100	93.9%
Not applicable	Total for all EU27 partners	235,745	124,231	112,130	90.3%

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT)                                                                              

90.3% of goods imported into GB from an EU27 partner made use of preferences where one was available.

94.7% of GB goods entered from the EU27 tariff free – either through FTA terms (49.1%) or MFN terms (45.6%).

149 countries or territories made use of a preferential tariff when importing into the UK, whether under a trade agreement or GSP, or other arrangement^{[footnote 4]}.

4.0% 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 provided such data. As a result, the release does not include a total for non-EU as the release does not cover all non-EU partners where the UK has a preferential tariff. 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 2022, by value of preference eligible exports

For the non-EU partners that have currently shared data with the UK, South Korea had the highest value of total preference eligible exports from the UK in 2022 of £3,196 million, of which £2,041 million of exports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR of 63.9%), based on UK analysis of data received from South Korea Customs Service.                                                                          

Rank	Non-EU Partners	Total imports (£ million)	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Preference use imports (£ million)	PUR
1	South Korea	4,672	3,196	2,041	63.9%
2	Turkey	4,406	2,793	2,486	89.0%
3	Switzerland and Liechtenstein	6,671	2,290	853	37.3%
4	Canada	5,237	1,003	754	75.2%
5	Japan	5,429	770	482	62.6%
6	Chile	487	479	271	56.6%
7	Serbia	258	237	109	45.9%
8	Vietnam	623	211	60	28.4%
9	Ukraine	649	208	99	47.5%
10	Costa Rica	151	147	129	87.5%

Note: data received from 9 additional trading partners can be found in the supplementary file.

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT)                  

4.2 EU

Table 4: preference utilisation of Great Britain’s top 10 EU27 partners in 2022, by value of preference eligible exports             

Netherlands was the top EU27 partner in terms of GB exports eligible for preferential tariffs in 2022 with £11,816 million, of which £10,555 million of exports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR of 89.3%) 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	Netherlands	25,344	11,816	10,555	89.3%
2	France	23,119	10,378	9,118	87.9%
3	Germany	28,831	10,159	7,285	71.7%
4	Belgium	29,479	6,688	6,244	93.4%
5	Ireland	25,103	6,467	4,631	71.6%
6	Spain	9,259	3,591	2,927	81.5%
7	Italy	6,733	3,306	2,696	81.6%
8	Sweden	6,080	2,226	1,914	86.0%
9	Denmark	2,504	1,432	1,114	77.8%
10	Poland	4,153	1,176	1,073	91.2%
Not applicable	Total for all EU27 partners	173,840	63,378	52,476	82.8%

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT), Eurostat.                                                               

82.8% of goods exported from GB to an EU27 partner made use of preferences where one was available.

92.6% of GB goods were exported to EU27 partners tariff free – either through FTA terms (33.8%) or MFN terms (58.8%).

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 is broken down into HS Sections based on HS2 (chapters) using the HS Nomenclature 2022 edition codes.

5.1 UK Imports by HS Section

Figure 1: total tariff eligible UK imports from non-EU partners in 2022 by HS section                                                                            

Transportation equipment made up the largest proportion of UK preference-eligible imports (£9,759 million) during this period (25.6%).

HS Section	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Imports not eligible for preference (£ million)
Mineral products	630	48,774
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	393	17,802
Machinery and mechanical appliances	4,501	12,219
Transportation equipment	9,759	1,236
Chemical products	3,576	6,010
Vegetable products	3,320	1,673
Textiles and textile articles	4,434	357
Instruments - measuring, musical	1,467	2,826
Base metals and articles thereof	1,160	3,106
Prepared food and beverages	2,355	665
Plastics and rubber	2,519	240
Animals and animal products	1,188	522
Miscellaneous manufactures	576	930
Footwear, headgear	1,264	18
Paper, printed products	0	827
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	270	283
Wood and wood products	83	403
Fats and oil	374	98
Works of art	0	389
Leather and hides	251	6
Arms and ammunition	24	0

Note: HS 99 not included.     

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT), HMRC.                                                                                  

Figure 2: preference utilisation rates for UK imports from non-EU partners in 2022, by HS section

                                                                                         
Animals and animal product imports into the UK from non-EU partners utilised the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (97.6%), with £1,188 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £1,118 million imports used a preferential tariff.       

HS Section	PUR
Animals and animal products	97.6%
Mineral products	96.7%
Vegetable products	94.2%
Fats and oil	89.5%
Transportation equipment	88.4%
Base metals and articles thereof	86.7%
Wood and wood products	86.6%
Prepared food and beverages	86.1%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	83.9%
Plastics and rubber	82.6%
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	78.3%
Instruments - measuring, musical	75.0%
Arms and ammunition	72.0%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	68.0%
Miscellaneous manufactures	65.7%
Leather and hides	59.3%
Textiles and textile articles	59.2%
Footwear, headgear	51.4%
Chemical products	48.8%

Note: paper, printed products and works of art are not included in the above chart as imports of these products were not eligible for preference in 2022. HS 99 not included.        

76.8% of UK imports from non-EU partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2022. The PUR for agricultural imports (HS01-24) from non-EU partners was 91.9% and 73.3% for non-agricultural UK imports (HS25-97).

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT), HMRC.                                                          

Figure 3: total tariff eligible imports into Great Britain from EU27 partners in 2022, by HS section 

Transportation equipment made up the largest proportion of GB preference eligible imports (£36,802m) into EU27 during this period (29.6%).

HS Section	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Imports not eligible for preference (£ million)
Transportation equipment	36,802	6,657
Machinery and mechanical appliances	13,024	27,548
Chemical products	10,317	21,197
Prepared food and beverages	19,663	2,248
Base metals and articles thereof	4,619	9,842
Mineral products	2,817	11,103
Plastics and rubber	11,422	776
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	516	8,353
Animals and animal products	6,594	706
Vegetable products	5,307	1,711
Miscellaneous manufactures	2,974	3,208
Instruments - measuring, musical	539	5,627
Paper, printed products	0	5,958
Wood and wood products	1,144	3,314
Textiles and textile articles	3,725	361
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	1,377	1,933
Fats and oil	1,339	53
Leather and hides	1,021	135
Footwear, headgear	942	20
Works of art	0	760
Arms and ammunition	88	3

Note: HS 99 not included.                                                                 

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT), HMRC.                                                                                  

Figure 4: preference utilisation rates for GB imports from EU27 partners in 2022, by HS section

Animals and animal product imports into GB from EU27 utilised the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (99.6%), with £6,594 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £6,568 million imports used a preferential tariff.     

HS Section	PUR
Animals and animal products	99.6%
Vegetable products	98.6%
Fats and oil	97.7%
Prepared food and beverages	97.2%
Wood and wood products	96.7%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	95.0%
Plastics and rubber	92.7%
Transportation equipment	91.8%
Chemical products	89.6%
Base metals and articles thereof	89.3%
Arms and ammunition	89.1%
Footwear, headgear	88.8%
Leather and hides	88.2%
Mineral products	85.2%
Miscellaneous manufactures	84.3%
Textiles and textile articles	82.0%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	71.7%
Instruments - measuring, musical	61.5%
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	58.9%

Note: paper, printed products and works of art are not included in the above chart as imports of these products were not eligible for preference in 2022. HS99 is not included.

90.3% of GB imports from EU27 partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2022. The PUR for agricultural imports (HS01-24) from EU27 partners was 97.9% and 87.5% for non-agricultural GB exports (HS25-97).                                                                                        

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT), HMRC.

5.2 GB exports by HS Section

The following section only covers GB 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 5]}. 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 2022, by HS section    

Transportation equipment made up the largest share of GB preference eligible exports to the EU27 during this period with a value of £11,867 million (18.7%).

HS Section	Preference eligible exports (£ million)	Exports not eligible for preference (£ million)
Mineral products	5,903	45,615
Chemical products	9,125	15,695
Machinery and mechanical appliances	11,565	12,967
Transportation equipment	11,867	5,944
Base metals and articles thereof	4,389	6,278
Prepared food and beverages	4,179	3,389
Plastics and rubber	6,295	1,252
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	373	6,063
Instruments - measuring, musical	845	4,458
Animals and animal products	2,734	1,515
Paper, printed products	0	2,906
Textiles and textile articles	1,998	509
Miscellaneous manufactures	978	840
Vegetable products	1,050	448
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	809	553
Fats and oil	494	195
Works of art	0	660
Wood and wood products	173	258
Footwear, headgear	249	97
Leather and hides	244	86
Arms and ammunition	109	44

Note: HS99 not included.

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT), Eurostat.

Figure 6: preference utilisation rates for Great Britain exports to EU27 partners in 2022, by HS section

Animals and animal product exports from GB into the EU27 utilised the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (98.8%), with £2,734 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £2,700 million exports used a preferential tariff.        

HS Section	PUR
Animals and animal products	98.8%
Mineral products	98.3%
Fats and oil	95.5%
Vegetable products	94.8%
Arms and ammunition	91.8%
Prepared food and beverages	89.8%
Plastics and rubber	88.7%
Chemical products	88.1%
Wood and wood products	85.8%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	84.5%
Transportation equipment	82.7%
Base metals and articles thereof	82.3%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	70.3%
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	68.3%
Miscellaneous manufactures	67.1%
Textiles and textile articles	56.1%
Instruments - measuring, musical	53.8%
Leather and hides	36.6%
Footwear, headgear	28.1%

Note: paper, printed products and works of art are not included in the above chart as exports of these products were not eligible for preference in 2022. HS99 is not included.    

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT), Eurostat.       

82.8% of the GB exports to EU27 partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2022. The PUR for agricultural exports (HS01-24) to EU27 partners was 93.7% and 81.1% for non-agricultural GB exports (HS25-97).          

6. Contact DBT                                                

                                                    

7. Disclaimer                                                    

Whereas every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this document is accurate, the Department for Business and Trade does not accept liability for any errors, omissions or misleading statements, and no warranty is given or responsibility accepted as to the standing of any individual, country or territory, company or other organisation mentioned.