Overseas Trade

(asked on 14th April 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent assessment she has made of trends in UK (a) export and (b) import levels compared with other economies.


Answered by
Mike Freer Portrait
Mike Freer
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 25th April 2022

UK trade flows are increasing, with the latest figures showing that in the 12 months ending February 2022 UK exports were up almost £50bn (8.2%) compared to the previous 12 months, whilst imports were up 15.6%.

Since the beginning of 2020 UK trade flows have largely been lower, driven by factors associated with the COVID pandemic, global recession, supply chain disruption, and adjustment to a new trading environment.

The impact of the global recession hit the UK harder than many other countries, in part because of our specialisation in services, which have been more negatively affected by COVID than goods production. Understanding the full impact of the different shocks, uncertainty and multiple factors in play will take time.

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