Trade between the UK, Med, and East Med

Trade between the UK with the Med had a pronounced drop in 2020, the year when Brexit became a reality, and the COVID-19 pandemic began. This was also the case for trade between the UK and the East Med, although the drop in 2020 was milder. This trend indicates that the drop in trade between the UK and the Med region, mainly involved countries outside of the East Med sub-region. Since 2020, trade between the UK and the Med and trade between the UK and the East Med has recovered and surpassed 2016 levels.

Over the last five years, the automotive and energy-related sectors have dominated trade between the UK and the Med. Namely, the top goods traded between the UK and the Med have been vehicles, nuclear reactors, as well as mineral fuels and oils. While the categories of goods traded remain consistent for imports from and exports to the Med, their ranking order varies.

When focusing on trade between the UK and the East Med (i.e. Israel, Lebanon, the State of Palestine, Syria, Cyprus, Egypt, Turkey, and Greece), handicraft goods (e.g. works of art and manufactured art) emerged as the top imports from the region. Mirroring UK exports to the Med, the top goods exported to the East Med from the UK were primarily from the automotive and energy sectors.

Note: Analysis produced by Alma Economics based on data from the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) and the UN Comtrade. Due to a lack of available ONS data, we conducted our analysis up until 2022. In the chart, values include trade for goods and services and are shown in current £. Top goods traded between the UK and the Med and the UK and the East Med do not include services due to the lack of available data. The East Med sub-region is defined as Israel, Lebanon, the State of Palestine, Syria, Cyprus, Egypt, Turkey, and Greece.