Preference utilisation of UK trade in goods, 2021
Statistics on UK utilisation of tariff preferences for imports and exports under PTAs for 2021, including trade in goods between Great Britain and the EU under the TCA.
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Statistics on the UK’s utilisation of tariff preferences for imports and exports under preferential trade agreements (PTAs).
This includes trade in goods between Great Britain and the EU under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), covering the period after the UK left the EU.
Preference Utilisation Rates (PURs) measure the extent to which tariff preferences provided by trade agreements are being used, in goods where preferential tariff rates are available and lower than the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) rate.
A PUR is normally presented as a percentage. It reflects the value of goods traded under tariff preferences, as a share of the total value of goods eligible for preferences (meaning to what extent a preferential tariff is being used).
Following initial publication on 13 February 2025, some errors with figures presented in the ‘Preference utilisation of UK goods in 2021’ HTML section of this publication were identified. This does not impact the database and aggregate supporting tables.
The following updates have been made:
- the preference utilisation headline figures for UK goods entering the UK tariff free, and by which terms, have been corrected. The previous figures did not account for excluding goods imports where the regime used was not known
- the preference utilisation headline figure for UK goods exported to South Korea has been rewritten to reflect this is among non-EU partners
- the preference utilisation headline figure for UK goods exported to Turkey has been rewritten to reflect this is among non-EU partners
- the overall tariff free figure (94.0%) for UK goods entering from non-EU trade agreement partners (following Table 1) has been corrected. The previous figure did not incorporate tariff free goods entering under GSP zero (0.3%)
- all tariff free figures for UK goods exported to EU27 partners in 2021 (following Table 4) have been corrected. The previous figures were inadvertently copied from another section of the publication. The correct line is: 86.9% of GB goods were exported to EU27 partners tariff free – either through FTA terms (38.9%) or MFN terms (48.1%)
- Figure 2 and the associated headline comment have been revised. The previous figures were inadvertently assigned to the incorrect HS sections
If you have any comments or questions on this update, please contact statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk.
Further corrections made in November 2025 – see show all updates.
Updates to this page
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Table 1 of the 'Export preference utilisation database, 2021' attachment updated with revised 'Tariff free' percentage values.
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Export databases and aggregate tables updated to include data subsequently provided by other non-EU partners (Albania, North Macedonia); revised data provided by non-EU partners (Norway); revised EU data from Eurostat data source (primarily impacting Cyprus and Latvia in 2021). The preference utilisation of UK goods in 2021 HTML commentary page has not been updated, representing the data that was available at the time of the original publication date. Therefore, some of the commentary and tables in the exports sections of the HTML commentary page may not exactly match the data in the exports database and aggregate tables. The latter should be used for any analysis.
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Errors in 'Preference utilisation of UK goods in 2021' document addressed.
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First published.