Free Trade Agreements Of The United Kingdom

Withdrawal ended 47 years of membership during which all its trading agreements were negotiated by the European Commission on behalf of the bloc. The UK did not actually withdraw from the European Single Market and the European Union Customs Union (and its trade agreements) until 31 December 2020.

These treaties are divided into two types of free trade agreements: continuity agreements and 'new' agreements. Continuity agreements, also named rollover agreements, use of a mutatis mutandis concept in order to quickly replicate the existing EU agreements, only having to call out those minor areas of differentiation. Most continuity treaties were provisionally applied, or through a "bridging mechanism", thus continuity was achieved. Trade agreements negotiated after Brexit are termed 'new', or enhanced agreements, these agreements have been negotiated from scratch or have been renegotiated to enhance the deal since Brexit.

As of May 2023^[update], the United Kingdom has 38 active free trade agreements with nations and trade blocs, covering 99 countries and territories. Five of these are 'new' trade agreements, such as with Australia and New Zealand. The remaining 33 are continuity agreements. Furthermore, the UK has a customs union with its three Crown Dependencies. The UK has further arrangements covering free trade with its 14 British Overseas Territories.

In addition, the UK has also reached an agreement to accede to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which it signed in July 2023 and is expected to join, after the 11 present members ratify, in 2024.

The United Kingdom has only suspended negotiations for a trade deal on one occasion; the UK suspended negotiations for a post-Brexit Canada Free Trade Agreement on 25 January 2024.

According to UK law the United Kingdom Parliament has the power to pass law in all policy areas.

The UK's negotiating team will consult with its Strategic Trade Advisory Group throughout the negotiations.

Ratification

The responsibility for concluding treaties involving the UK lies with the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs. This remains the case even when the negotiation of the treaty is led by another government department.

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office's legal advisers and Treaty Section:

• must be given the opportunity to comment on the drafts of all treaties under negotiation
• will advise on the form and substance of the treaty, though not substance which is technical and of which the other government department is the expert
• will advise on related matters such as the production of Full Powers and Instruments of Ratification
• will produce original signature copies of treaties and advise on the treaty signing ceremony
• will arrange for the treaty to be published and laid before Parliament
• is responsible for the registration of these treaties with the United Nations, allowing their subsequent publication in the United Nations Treaty Series
• will transfer of the treaties to the National Archives for preservation

Unless expressly authorised to do so by the United Kingdom government, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories do not have the authority to contract treaties in their own right. The UK must extend the territorial scope of its ratification of treaties to include them. This may be done either at the time of ratification, or at some later date.

The following bilateral and plurilateral agreements are currently in effect. Signature and entry into force dates are as listed by the World Trade Organization.

Nation(s)	No. of nations represented	Signed	Effective	Coverage	Treaty	Trade value (2023)	Ref.
Albania	1	5 February 2021	3 May 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£362m
Andean Countries   Colombia   Ecuador   Peru	3	15 May 2019	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£4,051m
Australia	1	16 December 2021	31 May 2023	Goods & Services	New	£20,036m
Cameroon	1	28 December 2020	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£1,029m
Canada	1	22 December 2020	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£26,287m
CARIFORUM   Antigua and Barbuda   Bahamas   Barbados   Belize   Dominica   Dominican Republic   Grenada   Guyana   Jamaica   Saint Kitts and Nevis   Saint Lucia   Saint Vincent and the Grenadines   Suriname   Trinidad and Tobago	14	22 March 2019	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£5,537m
Central America   Costa Rica   El Salvador   Guatemala   Honduras   Nicaragua   Panama	6	18 July 2019	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£2,478m
Chile	1	30 January 2019	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£1,804m
Eastern and Southern Africa   Mauritius   Seychelles   Zimbabwe	3	31 January 2019	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£2,027m
Egypt	1	5 December 2020	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£4,659m
European Union 27 members   Akrotiri and Dhekelia   Andorra   Austria   Belgium   Bulgaria   Croatia   Cyprus   Czech Republic   Denmark   Estonia   Finland   France   Germany   Greece   Hungary   Ireland   Italy   Latvia   Lithuania   Luxembourg   Malta   Monaco   Netherlands   Poland   Portugal   Romania   San Marino   Slovakia   Slovenia   Spain   Sweden	31	30 December 2020	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	New	£823,100m
Faroe Islands	1	31 January 2019	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£1,108m
Georgia	1	21 October 2019	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£500m
Ghana	1	2 March 2021	5 March 2021	Goods	Continuity	£1,188m
Iceland   Liechtenstein   Norway	3	8 July 2021	1 December 2021	Goods & Services	New	£41,537m
Israel	1	18 February 2019	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£6,137m
Ivory Coast	1	15 October 2020	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£841m
Japan	1	23 October 2020	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	New	£27,575m
Jordan	1	5 November 2019	1 May 2021	Goods	Continuity	£1,313m
Kenya	1	8 December 2020	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£1,427m
Kosovo	1	3 December 2019	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£12m
Lebanon	1	19 September 2019	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£1,131m
Liechtenstein   Switzerland	2	11 February 2019	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£50,817m
Mexico	1	15 December 2020	1 June 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£6,599m
Moldova	1	24 December 2020	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£1,478m
Morocco	1	26 October 2019	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£3,524m
New Zealand	1	28 February 2022	31 May 2023	Goods & Services	New	£3,100m
North Macedonia	1	3 December 2020	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£2,507m
Pacific States   Fiji   Papua New Guinea   Samoa   Solomon Islands	4	14 March 2019	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£390m
Palestinian Authority	1	18 February 2019	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£38m
Serbia	1	16 April 2021	20 May 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£1,018m
Singapore	1	10 December 2020	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£22,327m
South Korea	1	22 August 2019	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£16,331m
Southern Africa Customs Union and Mozambique   Botswana   Eswatini   Lesotho   Mozambique   Namibia   South Africa	6	9 October 2019	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£11,420m
Tunisia	1	4 October 2019	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£693m
Turkey	1	29 December 2020	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	£25,817m
Ukraine	1	8 October 2020	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£1,523m
Vietnam	1	29 December 2020	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	£5,859m

Dependencies

The following agreements govern the United Kingdom's free trade with British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.

Nation(s)	No. of nations represented	Signed	Effective	Coverage	Treaty	Comment	Ref.
Akrotiri and Dhekelia	31	30 December 2020	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	New	Trade with the UK is governed within the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, due to Akrotiri and Dhekelia remaining a part of the European Union customs union.
Crown Dependencies Customs Union   Guernsey   Isle of Man   Jersey	3	26 November 2018	9 December 2020	Goods & Services	New	The United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies established a customs union which created a free trade area between the territories, and creates a common external tariff with other countries.
Gibraltar	1	24 October 2019	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Continuity	Trade with Gibraltar is governed under the 'Financial Services and Markets Act 2000', Gibraltar and the UK amended this act in order to continue the agreement they had in the European Economic Area.
Overseas Territories   Anguilla   Bermuda   British Antarctic Territory   British Indian Ocean Territory   British Virgin Islands   Cayman Islands   Falkland Islands   Montserrat   Pitcairn Islands   Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha   South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands   Turks and Caicos Islands	14	9 November 2020	1 January 2021	Goods	Continuity	This arrangement acts as a continuity free trade agreement between 14 Overseas Territories and the UK.

The United Kingdom is currently negotiating free trade agreements with the following countries and trade blocs:

Nation (s)	No of nations represented	Coverage	Treaty	Trade value (2023)	Status	Progress	Ref.
Algeria	1	Goods	Continuity	£2,303m	Negotiations stagnated	A Continuity Trade Agreement has been offered to Algeria; neither party has signed the agreement.
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1	Goods & Services	Continuity	£255m	Negotiations stagnated	A Continuity Trade Agreement has been offered to Bosnia and Herzegovina; neither party has signed the agreement.
Canada	1	Goods & Services	New	£26,287m	Negotiations suspended	Negotiations suspended on 25 January 2024 by the United Kingdom; the two sides have completed eight rounds of talks since 2022.
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership   Australia   Brunei   Canada   Chile   Japan   Malaysia   Mexico   New Zealand   Peru   Singapore   Vietnam	11	Goods & Services	New	£121,355m	Agreement signed on 16 July 2023	Awaiting ratification of the UK's accession from member states. Chile, Japan and Singapore have ratified the UK's accession. The UK has domestically ratified it's accession, but needs to deposit the ratification documents to New Zealand. Eight more CPTPP states need to ratify the UK's accession.
Greenland	1	Goods	New	£12m	Negotiations stagnated	Negotiations opened on 27 January 2022.
Gulf Cooperation Council   Bahrain   Kuwait   Oman   Qatar   Saudi Arabia   United Arab Emirates	6	Goods & Services	New	£57,433m	Negotiations ongoing	Sixth round of negotiations concluded on 9 February 2024.
India	1	Goods & Services	New	£38,978m	Negotiations ongoing	Fourteenth round of negotiations concluded on 15 March 2024.
Israel	1	Goods & Services	New	£6,137m	Negotiations ongoing	Fourth round of negotiations concluded on 29 February 2024.
Maldives	1	Goods	New	£492m	Discussions ongoing	Trade consultation closed on 2 August 2023.
Mexico	1	Goods & Services	New	£6,599m	Negotiations ongoing	Third round of negotiations concluded on 19 May 2023.
Montenegro	1	Goods & Services	Continuity	£156m	Negotiations stagnated	A Continuity Trade Agreement has been offered to Montenegro; neither party has signed the agreement.
South Korea	1	Goods & Services	New	£18,349m	Negotiations ongoing	Second round of negotiations concluded on 22 March 2024.
Switzerland	1	Goods & Services	New	£50,817m	Negotiations ongoing	Fourth round of negotiations concluded on 8 March 2024.
Turkey	1	Goods & Services	New	£25,817m	Negotiations ongoing	Negotiations opened on 14 March 2024
Ukraine	1	Goods & Services	New	£1,523m	Agreement signed on 20 March 2023.	The Ukraine–United Kingdom Digital Trade Agreement will expand upon the existing FTA. Ukraine needs to ratify the DTA. The UK has completed the ratification of the DTA.
United States	1	Goods & Services	New	£310,840m	Negotiations stagnated	Fifth round of negotiations concluded on 30 October 2020.

Potential enlargement

The following countries can accede to an existing plurilateral Economic Partnership Agreement with the United Kingdom.

Nation (s)	Trade agreement being joined	Status	Ref.
Haiti	CARIFORUM	Haiti will be covered by the CARIFORUM–UK Economic Partnership Agreement if they sign it and bring it into effect.
Comoros   Madagascar   Zambia	Eastern and Southern Africa	Out of the remaining COMESA members, Comoros, Madagascar, and Zambia have agreements in place allowing them to join the ESA–UK Economic Partnership Agreement: Comoros signed the agreement on 12 April 2022 and will be covered by the EPA when they bring it into effect. Madagascar signed the agreement on 4 November 2021 and will be covered by the EPA when they bring it into effect. Zambia will be covered by the EPA if they sign it and bring it into effect.
East African Community   Burundi   DR Congo   Rwanda   Somalia   South Sudan   Tanzania   Uganda	Kenya	Article 143 of the UK–Kenya Economic Partnership Agreement enables any other East African Community member to make an accession request to the UK–Kenya EPA Council.
Cook Islands   Kiribati   Marshall Islands   Micronesia   Nauru   Niue   Palau   Tonga   Tuvalu   Vanuatu	Pacific States	The Pacific States–UK Economic Partnership Agreement states that 10 other Pacific nations are currently eligible to apply for accession. Tonga has shown interest in acceding to the EPA.

The following free trade agreements were previously active, however they have since been superseded or terminated.

Nation (s)	No of nations represented	Signed	Effective	Obsolete	Coverage	Note	Superseded by	Ref.
France	1	23 January 1860	23 January 1860	1 January 1892	Goods	The Cobden–Chevalier Treaty became obsolete after the introduction of the Méline tariff by the French Government.	—
Belgium	1	23 July 1862	23 July 1862	1 August 1897	Goods	The Anglo-Belgian Treaty of Commerce and Navigation was terminated by the UK, due to a clause that was contrary to the policy of Imperial Preference.	—
Ireland	1	19 December 1965	1 July 1966	1 January 1973	Goods	The Ireland–United Kingdom Free Trade Area was agreed to after both nations' bids to join the European Economic Community were rejected. This agreement was superseded upon both parties' accession to the EEC.	European Economic Community
Colombia	1	18 October 2019	1 January 2021	28 June 2022	Goods & Services	The Colombia–UK Trade Continuity Agreement was provisionally applied until Colombia could ratify the Andean–UK Trade Continuity Agreement, which superseded this agreement.	Andean Countries   Colombia   Ecuador   Peru
Iceland   Norway	2	8 December 2020	1 January 2021	8 July 2021	Goods	Iceland–Norway–UK Trade Continuity Agreement was superseded by an updated FTA with Liechtenstein, which expanded the coverage to include services.	Iceland   Liechtenstein   Norway

Former trade bloc memberships

The United Kingdom was previously a member of the following trade blocs, which include multilateral free trade with fellow members.

Nation (s)	No of nations represented	Signed	Effective	Obsolete	Coverage	Note	Superseded by	Ref.
European Free Trade Association   Austria   Denmark   Iceland   Norway   Portugal   Sweden    Switzerland	7	4 January 1960	3 May 1960	31 December 1972	Goods & Services	The UK was a founding member of the European Free Trade Association, however left the organisation in order to join the European Economic Community, along with Denmark.	European Economic Community
European Economic Community   Belgium   Denmark   France   Greece   Ireland   Italy   Luxembourg   Netherlands   Portugal   Spain   West Germany/Germany	11	22 January 1972	1 January 1973	1 November 1993	Goods & Services	The UK joined the European Economic Community, along with Denmark and Ireland. The EEC was incorporated into the European Union.	European Union
European Union 27 members   Austria   Belgium   Bulgaria   Croatia   Cyprus   Czechia   Denmark   Estonia   Finland   France   Germany   Greece   Hungary   Ireland   Italy   Latvia   Lithuania   Luxembourg   Malta   Netherlands   Poland   Portugal   Romania   Slovakia   Slovenia   Spain   Sweden	27	7 February 1992	1 November 1993	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	Following the result of the Brexit referendum, the UK invoked Article 50 in March 2017. The UK officially withdrew from the EU on the 1 January 2021.	Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Obsolete EU agreements

The following agreements are European Union free trade agreements which the United Kingdom was a party of until Brexit, however continuity agreements were not reached to replace them.

Nation (s)	No of nations represented	Signed	Effective	Obsolete	Coverage	Note	Ref.
Algeria	1	22 April 2002	1 September 2005	1 January 2021	Goods	The UK has no free trade agreement with Algeria.
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1	16 June 2008	1 June 2015	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	The UK has no free trade agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
EU Overseas Countries and Territories   Aruba   Bonaire   Curaçao   French Polynesia   French Southern and Antarctic Lands   Greenland   New Caledonia   Saba   Saint Barthélemy   Saint Pierre and Miquelon   Sint Eustatius   Sint Maarten   Wallis and Futuna	13	27 November 2001	2 December 2001	1 January 2021	Goods	The UK has no free trade agreement with any of the EU Overseas Countries and Territories. Greenland and the UK have opened negotiations for a free trade agreement.
Montenegro	1	15 October 2007	1 May 2010	1 January 2021	Goods & Services	The UK has no free trade agreement with Montenegro.

Export and import markets for goods in 2020 & 2021, seasonally adjusted
Figures in £millions sterling

Exports				Imports
Rank	Trade Partner	£millions	% of Total	Rank	Trade Partner	£millions	% of Total
	European Union	153 951	47.8%		European Union	223 393	46.8%
1.	United States	47 098	14.6%	1.	China	63 557	13.3%
2.	Germany (EU member)	29 595	9.2%	2.	Germany (EU member)	53 759	11.2%
3.	Netherlands (EU member)	27 085	8.4%	3.	United States	39 379	8.2%
4.	Ireland (EU member)	21 834	6.8%	4.	Netherlands (EU member)	31 786	6.7%
5.	France (EU member)	19 441	6.0%	5.	Norway (EFTA)	27 112	5.7%
6.	China	18 793	5.8%	6.	Belgium (EU member)	23 331	4.9%
7.	Belgium (EU member)	14 939	4.6%	7.	France (EU member)	23 128	4.8%
8.	Switzerland (EFTA)	10 309	3.2%	8.	Italy (EU member)	17 604	3.7%
9.	Italy (EU member)	9 112	2.8%	9.	Spain (EU member)	14 472	3.0%
10.	Spain (EU member)	7 878	2.4%	10.	Ireland (EU member)	13 861	2.9 %
	EU	300.3	43.0%		EU	372.2	51.4%
	Non EU	398.3	57.0%		Non EU	352.3	48.6%
	World	698.6	100%		World	724.5	100%

Historically, WTO imports and exports are based on the rule of origin, while EU imports/exports are based on single market statistics.

The figures above are for 2020 & 2021

• Accession of the United Kingdom to CPTPP
• Economic Partnership Agreements
• Free trade agreements of Canada
• Free trade agreements of India
• Free trade agreements of Israel
• Free trade agreements of New Zealand
• Free trade agreements of the European Union
• Free trade agreements of the United States
• Free trade agreements of Turkey
• Foreign relations of the United Kingdom
• List of multilateral free trade agreements
• List of bilateral free trade agreements
• UK common framework policies – UK internal market policies post-Brexit
• United Kingdom–Crown Dependencies Customs Union – Free trade area