Official Statistics

Preference utilisation of UK goods in 2023

Published 6 November 2025

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 2023 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^{[footnote 2]}

Preferential tariffs are reduced rates of Customs Duty offered under preferential trade agreements (PTA), the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), and the Developed Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS)^{[footnote 3]} 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 4]}. 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^{[footnote 5]} 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:

• all EU27 member states
• Albania
• Canada
• Chile
• Costa Rica
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Iceland
• Japan
• Kosovo
• Nicaragua
• North Macedonia
• Norway
• Panama
• Serbia
• Switzerland and Liechtenstein
• Turkey
• Ukraine

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 2023:

39 trade agreements were in force between the UK and its trading partners by the end of 2023, including the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), as well as the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP)/Developed Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS). Australia and New Zealand were the 2 new FTAs that entered into force in 2023.

88.1% of goods imported into the UK made use of preferences where one was available, compared to 86.6% in 2022.

86.6% of goods entered the UK tariff free^{[footnote 6]} – 59% did so under MFN terms, 26.3% did so under FTA preferences, and 1.3% did so under GSP or DCTS preferences – compared to 86.3% in 2022.

80.8% of goods exported from Great Britain (GB) into the EU27 made use of preferences where one was available.

90.4% of GB goods entered EU27 partners tariff free – either through preferential terms (40.3%) or MFN terms (50.1%).

91.7% of goods exported from UK to Turkey (the non-EU partner with the highest value of total preference eligible exports from the UK) made use of preferences where one was available.

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 2023, by value of preference eligible imports

Turkey was the top non-EU partner in terms of value of preference eligible imports (£9,343 million) into the UK in 2023, of which £8,541 million of imports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR 91.4%).

Rank	Non-EU partners	Total imports (£ million)	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Preference use imports (£ million)	PUR
1	Turkey	12,494	9,343	8,541	91.4%
2	Japan	11,818	4,313	3,124	72.4%
3	Switzerland	10,865	4,165	3,261	78.3%
4	South Korea	6,370	3,253	2,967	91.2%
5	Vietnam	7,409	3,183	1,551	48.7%
6	South Africa	7,326	2,198	2,001	91.1%
7	Morocco	1,813	1,637	1,386	84.7%
8	Mexico	4,749	1,627	1,028	63.2%
9	Norway	25,924	1,282	1,199	93.5%
10	Egypt	1,353	996	908	91.2%
Not applicable	Total	118,427	38,731	31,220	80.6%.

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT)

80.6% of goods imported into the UK from a non-EU partner made use of preferences where one was available, compared to 76.8% in 2022.

89.9% of UK goods entered from non-EU trade agreement partners tariff free – either through FTA terms (24.4%), GSP or DCTS terms (0.1%) or MFN terms (65.4%) – compared to 91.1% in 2022.

Table 2: preference utilisation of Great Britain’s top 10 EU27 partners in 2023, by value of preference eligible imports

Germany was the top EU27 partner in terms of value of preference eligible imports (£32,304 million) into GB in 2023, of which £28,600 million of imports used a preferential tariff rate (a PUR of 88.5%).

Rank	EU27 Partners	Total imports (£ million)	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Preference use imports (£ million)	PUR
1	Germany	57,826	32,304	28,600	88.5%
2	France	31,616	15,814	14,504	91.7%
3	Italy	23,746	13,634	12,336	90.5%
4	Spain	20,645	13,079	12,541	95.9%
5	Netherlands	20,527	10,440	9,963	95.4%
6	Poland	15,011	8,832	7,969	90.2%
7	Belgium	14,049	7,563	6,919	91.5%
8	Ireland	12,036	5,923	5,608	94.7%
9	Czechia	8,067	4,821	4,198	87.1%
10	Slovakia	4,817	4,085	3,837	93.9%
Not applicable	Total	246,911	135,284	123,088	91.0%

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT).

91.0% of goods imported into GB from an EU27 partner made use of preferences where one was available, compared to 90.3% in 2022.

94.9% of GB goods entered from the EU27 tariff free – either through FTA terms (51.6%) or MFN terms (43.3%) – compared to 94.7% in 2022.

Across all trading partners, 148 countries or territories made use of a preferential tariff when importing into the UK, whether under a trade agreement or GSP or DCTS, or other arrangement ^{[footnote 7]}.

4.4% 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 data. As a result, the release does not include a non-EU total as the release does not cover all non-EU partners where the UK has a preferential tariff.

Additionally, because the list of non-EU partners who have provided UK export data for analysis differs each year, tables covering non-EU exports (such as Table 3) should not be directly compared to the equivalent table in other versions of this publication.

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 2023, by value of preference eligible exports

For the non-EU partners that have currently shared 2023 data with the UK, Turkey had the highest value of total preference eligible exports from the UK in 2023 of £2,717 million, of which £2,492 million of exports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR of 91.7%), based on UK analysis of data received from Turkey customs service.

Rank	Non-EU Partners	Total imports (£ million)	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Preference use imports (£ million)	PUR
1	Turkey	4,807	2,717	2,492	91.7%
2	Switzerland	5,664	1,903	842	44.3%
3	Canada	5,439	1,066	827	77.5%
4	Japan	5,588	749	475	63.4%
5	Chile	407	400	237	59.1%
6	Ukraine	876	399	194	48.7%
7	North Macedonia	1,215	256	231	90.2%
8	Serbia	270	249	113	45.4%
9	Costa Rica	147	144	25	17.3%
10	Norway	3,559	64	37	59.0%

Note: data received from 7 additional trading partners can be found in the supplementary file. Table 3 is also not directly comparable to the equivalent table in previous years as the list of non-EU partners who have completed data exchanges varies each year.

Source: Department for Business and Trade (DBT), FTA partner country data (see section 1.4 of the technical annex for all sources)

4.2 EU

Table 4: preference utilisation of Great Britain’s top 10 EU27 partners in 2023, by value of preference eligible exports  

France was the top EU27 partner in terms of GB exports eligible for preferential tariffs in 2023 with £10,822 million, of which £9,400 million of exports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR of 86.9%) 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	France	20,819	10,822	9,400	86.9%
2	Netherlands	27,777	10,783	9,594	89.0%
3	Germany	26,267	10,544	7,927	75.2%
4	Ireland	23,438	8,804	6,886	78.2%
5	Belgium	17,835	7,614	7,183	94.3%
6	Spain	8,951	4,268	3,300	77.3%
7	Italy	7,396	4,106	1,638	39.9%
8	Sweden	4,993	2,082	1,814	87.1%
9	Poland	3,679	1,858	1,503	80.9%
10	Czechia	2,283	1,330	1,004	75.5%
Not applicable	Total	156,957	69,011	55,789	80.8%

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

80.8% of the GB exports to EU27 partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2023.

90.4% of GB goods were exported to EU27 partners tariff free – either through FTA terms (40.3%) or MFN terms (50.1%).

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 breaks PURs down into HS sections based on HS2 (chapters) using the HS Nomenclature 2023 edition codes.

5.1 UK imports by HS section

Figure 1: total tariff eligible UK imports from non-EU partners in 2023 by HS section

Transportation equipment made up the largest proportion of UK preference eligible imports (£11,384 million) during this period (29.4%).

HS section	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Imports not eligible for preference (£ million)	‎
Mineral products	589	28,351
Machinery and mechanical appliances	4,822	13,679
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	265	16,680
Transportation equipment	11,384	2,619
Chemical products	2,625	5,804
Instruments - measuring, musical	1,657	3,506
Vegetable products	3,517	1,594
Textiles and textile articles	3,856	342
Base metals and articles thereof	1,049	2,841
Prepared food and beverages	2,873	871
Plastics and rubber	2,349	258
Animals and animal products	1,137	771
Miscellaneous manufactures	568	760
Footwear, headgear	1,232	17
Paper, printed products	0	723
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	217	260
Fats and oil	281	133
Wood and wood products	70	283
Leather and hides	220	6
Works of art	0	197
Arms and ammunition	21	0

Note: HS 98 and 99 not included.  

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

Figure 2: preference utilisation rates for UK imports from non-EU partners in 2023, by HS section

Animals and animal products imports into the UK from non-EU partners utilised the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (95.8%), with £1,137 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £1,090 million imports used a preferential tariff. 

HS section	PUR
Animals and animal products	95.8%
Mineral products	95.4%
Wood and wood products	92.9%
Vegetable products	92.1%
Transportation equipment	91.2%
Base metals and articles thereof	86.5%
Prepared food and beverages	85.9%
Plastics and rubber	81.8%
Instruments - measuring, musical	81.1%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	79.3%
Chemical products	74.0%
Fats and oil	73.6%
Miscellaneous manufactures	73.1%
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	69.3%
Arms and ammunition	68.4%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	68.0%
Footwear, headgear	57.6%
Textiles and textile articles	57.1%
Leather and hides	52.1%

Note: paper, printed products and works of art are not included in the chart as imports of these products were not eligible for preference in 2023. HS 99 not included.  

80.6% of UK imports from non-EU partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2023. The PUR for agricultural imports (HS01 to 24) from non-EU partners was 89.7% and 78.3% for non-agricultural UK imports (HS25 to 97).

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

Figure 3: total tariff eligible imports into Great Britain from EU27 partners in 2023, by HS section 

Transportation equipment made up the largest proportion of GB preference eligible imports (£46,243 million) into EU27 during this period (34.2%).

HS section	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Imports not eligible for preference (£ million)	‎
Transportation equipment	46,243	9,779
Machinery and mechanical appliances	13,391	30,641
Chemical products	10,361	18,413
Prepared food and beverages	22,057	2,444
Base metals and articles thereof	4,560	9,893
Mineral products	2,168	9,494
Plastics and rubber	10,353	699
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	596	7,434
Animals and animal products	7,187	644
Vegetable products	5,602	1,681
Instruments - measuring, musical	627	6,210
Miscellaneous manufactures	3,080	3,036
Paper, printed products	0	5,114
Wood and wood products	1,140	2,744
Textiles and textile articles	3,541	326
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	1,095	2,121
Fats and oil	1,276	83
Leather and hides	1,023	110
Footwear, headgear	896	23
Works of art	0	730
Arms and ammunition	89	5

Note: HS 98 and 99 not included. 

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

Figure 4: preference utilisation rates for GB imports from EU27 partners in 2023, by HS section

Animals and animal products imports into GB from EU27 utilised the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (99.4%), with £7,187 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £7,145 million imports used a preferential tariff. 

HS section	PUR
Animals and animal products	99.4%
Vegetable products	98.9%
Wood and wood products	97.5%
Prepared food and beverages	97.3%
Fats and oil	95.6%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	95.2%
Mineral products	93.4%
Transportation equipment	93.3%
Plastics and rubber	92.6%
Chemical products	91.6%
Arms and ammunition	90.4%
Footwear, headgear	89.1%
Base metals and articles thereof	88.7%
Leather and hides	88.4%
Textiles and textile articles	81.3%
Miscellaneous manufactures	81.1%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	69.6%
Instruments - measuring, musical	63.6%
Pearls, (semi-) precious stones and metals	61.4%

Note: paper, printed products and works of art are not included in the chart as imports of these products were not eligible for preference in 2023. HS99 is not included.

91.0% of GB imports from EU27 partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2023. The PUR for agricultural imports (HS01 to 24) from EU27 partners was 97.9% and 88.5% for non-agricultural GB exports (HS25 to 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 8]}. 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 2023, 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 £16,128 million (23.4%).

HS section	Preference eligible exports (£ million)	Exports not eligible for preference (£ million)	‎
Mineral products	4,859	28,508
Machinery and mechanical appliances	12,948	13,112
Transportation equipment	16,128	7,613
Chemical products	10,532	11,970
Base metals and articles thereof	4,238	5,367
Prepared food and beverages	4,672	3,654
Plastics and rubber	5,727	954
Instruments - measuring, musical	830	4,869
Animals and animal products	2,669	1,453
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	240	3,709
Textiles and textile articles	2,136	682
Paper, printed products	0	2,552
Miscellaneous manufactures	1,025	863
Vegetable products	1,019	429
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	794	558
Works of art	0	1,045
Fats and oil	456	106
Wood and wood products	130	257
Footwear, headgear	273	109
Leather and hides	252	77
Arms and ammunition	82	20

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 2023, by HS section

Animals and animal products exports from GB into the EU27 utilised the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (97.9%), with £2,669 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £2,613 million exports used a preferential tariff.      

HS section	PUR
Animals and animal products	97.9%
Mineral products	96.8%
Fats and oil	95.0%
Vegetable products	93.9%
Arms and ammunition	89.7%
Prepared food and beverages	88.9%
Chemical products	84.8%
Plastics and rubber	84.5%
Transportation equipment	84.4%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	82.1%
Wood and wood products	78.9%
Base metals and articles thereof	77.8%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	69.2%
Miscellaneous manufactures	66.2%
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	53.2%
Textiles and textile articles	52.6%
Instruments - measuring, musical	48.2%
Leather and hides	30.0%
Footwear, headgear	21.8%

Note: paper, printed products and works of art are not included in the chart as exports of these products were not eligible for preference in 2023. HS99 is not included.    

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

80.8% of the GB exports to EU27 partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2023. The PUR for agricultural exports (HS01 to 24) to EU27 partners was 92.5% and 79.1% for non-agricultural GB exports (HS25 to 97).         

6. Contact DBT                                                

DBT’s Trade Policy Statistics Team

Email statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk

Public enquiries 020 7215 5297    

Media enquiries 020 7215 2000

Responsible statistician: Ross Black

                                                    

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.

1. PUR statistics rely upon customs declarations, so estimates exclude imports from the EU into Northern Ireland and exports from Northern Ireland into the EU which are still collected using the Intrastat survey. Throughout the report the EU refers to the 27 EU member states only. ↩

2. A non-EU agreement partner is any UK trade partner outside the EU27 member states, while a non-EU agreement partner is any UK trade partner outside the EU27 member states with which the UK has a free trade agreement (FTA) which has entered into force. ↩

3. The DCTS replaced the GSP on 19 June 2023. For the 2023 edition of this publication imports trade under GSP and DCTS are reported together. For more information see section 1.8 of the technical annex.        ↩

4. Most Favoured Nation (MFN) refers to tariffs that apply to imports from any World Trade Organization (WTO) member. There are a few exceptions where HMRC classifies imports as preference eligible where the MFN rate is equal to the preferential rate. For further detail, see section 1.5 of the technical annex. ↩

5. Country of origin refers to the country where the goods originated, that is, where they were produced or manufactured. ↩

6. Definition of ‘tariff free’ excludes those imports that entered tariff free through processing relief – importers may apply to pay less duty on goods they trade for processing or repair through inward or outward processing. ↩

7. Includes Andorra, San Marino, Ceuta and Melilla, EU overseas territories and British Overseas Territories. ↩

8. For further detail, see section 1.5 of the technical annex. ↩