Official Statistics

Preference utilisation of UK goods in 2024

Published 23 April 2026

1. Summary

This publication details the extent to which preferential tariffs have been used for the United Kingdom (UK) trade in goods with partners in 2024 for:

• UK imports from non-EU partners
• Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) imports from EU member states^{[footnote 1]}
• Great Britain 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) and the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) 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 3]} 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 can differ for several reasons including:

• length of entry into force of the free trade agreement (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 2024

39 trade agreements were in force between the UK and its trading partners including the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), as well as the DCTS.

87.8% of goods imported into the UK made use of preferences where one was available, compared to 88.1% in 2023.

86.7% of goods entered the UK tariff free^{[footnote 4]} – 59.9% did so under MFN terms, 25.5% did so under FTA preferences, and 1.2% did so under DCTS preferences – compared to 86.6% in 2023.

83.1% of goods exported from Great Britain into the EU27 made use of preferences where one was available.

90.8% 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. This was also the highest PUR among non-EU partners.

90.9% of Great Britain goods entered EU27 partners tariff free – either through preferential terms (44.3%) or MFN terms (46.7%).

3. UK imports by preference

PURs for UK imports on a country of origin^{[footnote 5]} basis are drawn from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) imports by preference data.

87.8% of goods imported into the UK made use of preferences where one was available, compared to 88.1% in 2023.

86.7% of goods entered the UK tariff free – 59.9% did so under MFN terms, 25.5% did so under FTA preferences, and 1.2% did so under DCTS preferences, compared to 86.6% in 2023.

151 countries or territories made use of a preferential tariff when importing into the UK, whether under a trade agreement or DCTS, or other arrangement.^{[footnote 6]}

3.7% of all goods entering the UK in this period made use of inward or outward processing relief. 

Tables 1 and 2 provide PURs for non-EU and EU partners respectively.

Table 1: preference utilisation of top 10 non-EU partners where a trade agreement is in effect in 2024, by value of preference eligible imports

Turkey was the top non-EU partner in terms of value of preference eligible imports (£9,899 million) into the UK in 2024, of which £9,192 million of imports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR of 92.9%).

Rank	Non-EU partners	Total imports (£ million)	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Preference use imports (£ million)	PUR
1	Turkey	14,453	9,899	9,192	92.9%
2	Japan	10,413	3,827	2,889	75.5%
3	Vietnam	8,517	3,460	1,858	53.7%
4	South Korea	5,972	3,049	2,774	91.0%
5	Switzerland	15,089	2,888	2,384	82.6%
6	South Africa	10,200	2,428	2,205	90.8%
7	Mexico	5,096	1,715	1,013	59.1%
8	Morocco	1,977	1,669	1,434	85.9%
9	Norway	22,834	1,159	1,063	91.7%
10	Egypt	1,347	1,075	980	91.2%
Not applicable	Total	135,383	38,467	31,547	82.0%

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

82.0% of goods imported into the UK from a non-EU partner made use of preferences where one was available.

92.0% of UK goods entered from non-EU trade agreement partners tariff free – either through FTA terms (21.4%), DCTS terms (0.0%) or MFN terms (70.6%).

Table 2: preference utilisation of Great Britain’s top 10 EU27 partners in 2024, by value of preference eligible imports

Germany was the top EU27 partner in terms of value of preference eligible imports (£30,956 million) into Great Britain in 2024, of which £26,853 million of imports used a preferential tariff rate (a PUR of 86.7%).

Rank	EU27 Partners	Total imports (£ million)	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Preference use imports (£ million)	PUR
1	Germany	57,406	30,956	26,853	86.7%
2	France	29,683	14,950	13,013	87.0%
3	Italy	24,422	13,452	12,221	90.8%
4	Spain	20,389	13,082	12,585	96.2%
5	Netherlands	19,284	10,521	9,842	93.5%
6	Poland	15,348	8,948	8,130	90.9%
7	Belgium	13,585	7,391	7,010	94.8%
8	Czechia	8,414	5,438	4,833	88.9%
9	Ireland	11,132	5,099	4,480	87.9%
10	Slovakia	4,700	3,944	3,699	93.8%
Not applicable	Total	242,078	132,446	119,223	90.0%

Source: DBT, HMRC.

90.0% of goods imported into Great Britain from an EU27 partner made use of preferences where one was available.

94.4% of Great Britain goods entered from the EU27 tariff free – either through FTA terms (50.6%) or MFN terms (43.8%).

4. UK exports by preference

PURs for UK exports are drawn from data provided by 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
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Iceland
• Japan
• Kosovo
• Nicaragua
• North Macedonia
• Norway
• Panama
• Serbia
• Singapore^{[footnote 7]}
• Switzerland and Liechtenstein^{[footnote 8]}
• Turkey
• Ukraine

2024 exports data was also exchanged with Australia and New Zealand but has not yet been approved for inclusion in this publication. UK export PUR statistics with these partners are available in the UK government’s monitoring report on Australia, New Zealand, and Japan FTAs.

Tables 3 and 4 provide PURs for non-EU and EU partners respectively.

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 2024, by value of preference eligible exports

For the non-EU partners that have currently shared data with the UK, Turkey had the highest value of total preference eligible exports from the UK in 2024 of £2,967 million, of which £2,694 million of exports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR of 90.8%), based on UK analysis of data received from Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Trade.

Rank	Non-EU Partners	Total exports (£ million)	Preference eligible exports (£ million)	Preference use exports (£ million)	PUR
1	Turkey	4,876	2,967	2,694	90.8%
2	Canada	5,358	1,342	1,085	80.9%
3	Japan	6,059	653	398	61.0%
4	Ukraine	993	415	198	47.9%
5	Serbia	334	286	136	47.6%
6	North Macedonia	1,038	189	157	83.2%
7	Costa Rica	164	161	20	12.4%
8	Switzerland	6,806	142	87	61.2%
9	Norway	3,520	72	34	46.9%
10	Iceland	304	57	49	85.5%

Note: data received from 7 additional trading partners can be found in the supplementary file.

Source: 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 2024, by value of preference eligible exports

France was the top EU27 partner in terms of Great Britain exports eligible for preferential tariffs in 2024 with £11,423 million, of which £9,902 million of exports used a preferential tariff rate (PUR of 86.7%) 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	21,293	11,423	9,902	86.7%
2	Netherlands	22,228	10,250	9,124	89.0%
3	Germany	24,796	9,242	6,747	73.0%
4	Belgium	14,396	7,207	6,811	94.5%
5	Ireland	18,858	6,511	4,618	70.9%
6	Italy	6,622	3,740	3,051	81.6%
7	Spain	8,051	3,400	2,744	80.7%
8	Sweden	4,845	1,944	1,674	86.1%
9	Poland	3,420	1,608	1,341	83.4%
10	Czechia	2,081	1,256	942	75.0%
Not applicable	Total	138,499	63,215	52,534	83.1%

Source: DBT, Eurostat.

83.1% of the Great Britain exports to EU27 partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2024.

90.9% of Great Britain goods were exported to EU27 partners tariff free – either through FTA terms (44.3%) or MFN terms (46.7%).

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 2024 edition codes.

Section 5.1 covers UK imports split by HS section, showing total imports by whether they were eligible for preferences or not, then PURs. This is done firstly for non-EU, then EU partners. Section 5.2 provides the same HS section split for UK exports, but only for EU partners.

5.1 UK imports by HS section

Figure 1: total tariff eligible UK imports from non-EU partners in 2024 by HS section

Transportation equipment made up the largest proportion of UK preference eligible imports (£12,034 million) during this period (31.3%).

HS section	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Imports not eligible for preference (£ million)	‎
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	253	38,693
Mineral products	513	24,066
Machinery and mechanical appliances	4,714	13,438
Transportation equipment	12,034	1,764
Chemical products	1,182	6,323
Vegetable products	4,006	1,683
Instruments – measuring, musical	1,599	3,367
Base metals and articles thereof	1,074	2,990
Prepared food and beverages	3,297	725
Textiles and textile articles	3,584	306
Plastics and rubber	2,301	227
Animals and animal products	1,319	808
Miscellaneous manufactures	525	802
Footwear, headgear	1,228	15
Paper, printed products	0	681
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	202	286
Fats and oil	314	157
Wood and wood products	69	346
Works of art	0	232
Leather and hides	206	5
Arms and ammunition	48	0

Note: HS 99 not included.

Source: DBT, HMRC.

Figure 2: preference utilisation rates for UK imports from non-EU partners in 2024, by HS section

Animals and animal products imports into the UK from non-EU partners used the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (96.3%), with £1,319 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £1,270 million imports used a preferential tariff. 

HS section	PUR
Animals and animal products	96.3%
Mineral products	95.4%
Vegetable products	93.5%
Wood and wood products	92.8%
Transportation equipment	91.3%
Base metals and articles thereof	88.3%
Prepared food and beverages	87.8%
Arms and ammunition	85.8%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	85.2%
Plastics and rubber	82.7%
Chemical products	77.4%
Instruments – measuring, musical	75.7%
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	71.9%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	68.7%
Miscellaneous manufactures	67.2%
Fats and oil	65.3%
Footwear, headgear	61.5%
Textiles and textile articles	57.7%
Leather and hides	51.4%

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 2024. HS 99 not included.

82.0% of UK imports from non-EU partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2024. The PUR for agricultural imports (HS01 to 24) from non-EU partners was 90.8% and 79.3% for non-agricultural UK imports (HS25 to 97).

Source: DBT, HMRC.

Figure 3: total tariff eligible imports into Great Britain from EU27 partners in 2024, by HS section 

Transportation equipment made up the largest proportion of Great Britain preference eligible imports (£43,883 million) from EU27 during this period (33.1%).

HS section	Preference eligible imports (£ million)	Imports not eligible for preference (£ million)	‎
Transportation equipment	43,883	8,548
Machinery and mechanical appliances	13,674	28,952
Chemical products	8,826	19,556
Prepared food and beverages	22,633	2,589
Base metals and articles thereof	4,602	9,555
Mineral products	3,083	8,846
Plastics and rubber	9,914	628
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	598	8,709
Animals and animal products	7,424	579
Vegetable products	6,008	1,715
Instruments – measuring, musical	598	5,948
Miscellaneous manufactures	2,769	3,126
Paper, printed products	0	4,974
Wood and wood products	1,023	2,747
Textiles and textile articles	3,203	289
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	1,071	1,958
Fats and oil	1,290	95
Leather and hides	924	106
Footwear, headgear	840	23
Works of art	0	680
Arms and ammunition	83	7

Note: HS 99 not included.

Source: DBT, HMRC.

Figure 4: preference utilisation rates for Great Britain imports from EU27 partners in 2024, by HS section

Animals and animal products imports into Great Britain from EU27 used the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (99.2%), with £7,424 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £7,366 million imports used a preferential tariff. 

HS section	PUR
Animals and animal products	99.2%
Vegetable products	98.7%
Wood and wood products	98.6%
Prepared food and beverages	97.7%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	95.9%
Fats and oil	94.6%
Transportation equipment	92.8%
Arms and ammunition	92.4%
Plastics and rubber	92.3%
Footwear, headgear	90.3%
Base metals and articles thereof	89.0%
Leather and hides	86.7%
Mineral products	86.4%
Miscellaneous manufactures	82.5%
Textiles and textile articles	81.4%
Chemical products	78.8%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	71.0%
Instruments – measuring, musical	64.4%
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	59.5%

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 2024. HS99 is not included.

90.0% of Great Britain imports from EU27 partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2024. The PUR for agricultural imports (HS01 to 24) from EU27 partners was 98.0% and 86.9% for non-agricultural Great Britain imports (HS25 to 97).

Source: DBT, HMRC.

5.2 Great Britain exports by HS section

The following section only covers Great Britain 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 9]}

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 2024, by HS section

Transportation equipment made up the largest share of Great Britain preference eligible exports to the EU27 during this period with a value of £13,884 million (22.0%).

HS section	Preference eligible exports (£ million)	Exports not eligible for preference (£ million)	‎
Machinery and mechanical appliances	12,618	12,400
Mineral products	5,046	18,867
Chemical products	7,905	12,539
Transportation equipment	13,884	6,288
Base metals and articles thereof	4,087	5,260
Prepared food and beverages	4,832	3,458
Plastics and rubber	5,500	968
Instruments – measuring, musical	790	4,750
Animals and animal products	2,823	1,460
Textiles and textile articles	2,011	777
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	244	2,383
Paper, printed products	0	2,531
Miscellaneous manufactures	1,027	865
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	735	557
Works of art	0	1,139
Vegetable products	663	394
Fats and oil	374	76
Footwear, headgear	261	153
Wood and wood products	120	253
Leather and hides	245	72
Arms and ammunition	50	42

Note: HS99 not included.

Source: DBT, Eurostat.

Figure 6: preference utilisation rates for Great Britain exports to EU27 partners in 2024, by HS section

Animals and animal products exports from Great Britain into the EU27 used the largest proportion of preferential tariffs available (98.9%), with £2,823 million eligible for preferential tariffs and £2,793 million exports used a preferential tariff.

HS section	PUR
Animals and animal products	98.9%
Mineral products	98.4%
Fats and oil	94.6%
Prepared food and beverages	89.7%
Vegetable products	88.5%
Transportation equipment	88.3%
Plastics and rubber	87.1%
Chemical products	86.9%
Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos	85.3%
Base metals and articles thereof	81.2%
Arms and ammunition	79.4%
Wood and wood products	74.2%
Machinery and mechanical appliances	70.6%
Miscellaneous manufactures	69.8%
Pearls, (semi-)precious stones and metals	59.7%
Instruments – measuring, musical	59.1%
Textiles and textile articles	56.6%
Leather and hides	27.5%
Footwear, headgear	24.0%

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 2024. HS99 is not included.

Source: DBT, Eurostat.

83.1% of the Great Britain exports to EU27 partners made use of the preferential tariffs in 2024. The PUR for agricultural exports (HS01 to 24) to EU27 partners was 92.8% and 81.6% for non-agricultural Great Britain 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, DBT 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 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. 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. ↩

4. 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. It also excludes imports where processing was unknown. For further detail, see section 1.6 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. Includes Andorra, San Marino, Ceuta and Melilla, EU overseas territories and British Overseas Territories. ↩

7. In Singapore’s exchanged data, there are instances where the value of preferential trade imports into Singapore exceeds that value of total trade imports into Singapore. This is when the value of goods exiting free trade zones or bonded warehouses into the market is higher than when they initially entered these areas owing to a higher purchase price. To address this issue, DBT has adjusted these records, increasing the total export values to match preferential export values, enabling the application of our standard methodology for calculating PURs. While the trade value impacted is minimal (under £1 million), minor discrepancies may exist between these statistics and Singapore’s official trade data. ↩

8. As of 1 January 2024 Switzerland abolished industrial tariffs (covering Harmonized Systems Chapters 25-97). This means import duties on all industrial products were set to 0. Under DBT PUR methodology, these exports are now considered to have MFN zero duty and are not eligible for preferences. Subsequently, there has been a significant reduction in preference eligible exports to Switzerland from the UK compared to previous years of this publication. ↩

9. For further detail, see the methodology and quality section. ↩