UK trade a decade after Brexit: services strength offsets goods friction

Brexit still haunts UK political life a decade after the referendum vote. But amid the economic malaise, it might come as a surprise to see that Britain outperformed most of its G7 peers when it comes to exports, despite increased trade frictions with its former EU partners.

Only Italy and the US have outperformed the UK since June 2016. This is a result of the UK’s global leadership in services. Information technology and intellectual property services (which ranges from chip and pharma patents to cultural goods, media and software copyrights) have even outperformed London’s traditional strengths in finance, asset management and insurance.

Despite increased red tape and customs checks, goods exports to the EU held up better than pessimists would have thought – outperforming Britain’s shipments to the rest of the world since 2024. None of this means Brexit was costless. But it means the worst-case trade rupture priced in during the late 2010s has not materialized.