Spanish exports to UK grow by 25% in five years since Brexit
This is according to a new analysis by the Spanish International Road Transport Association (ASTIC), published to mark the fifth anniversary of Britain's withdrawal from the EU.
Despite post-Brexit bureaucracy and a period of initial legal uncertainty, the UK continues to be a key market for Spanish goods exports, ranking as the fifth largest destination in 2023 with 6 percent of the total.
The UK follows France (16 percent), Germany (11 percent), Italy (9 percent) and Portugal (9 percent). Figures from Spain's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise show that the primary goods exported to the UK are food, beverages and tobacco, along with the car sector (both vehicles and components) and chemical products.
That's not to say that Brexit, compounded by the supply chain shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, didn't hamper exports initially.
In 2019, Spanish exports to the UK amounted to €19 billion. A year later, they fell to a little over €16 billion.
In 2021, with the official end of the Brexit transition period, exports recovered slightly to €16.8 billion, and in 2022 grew to over €22 billion and then in 2023 exceeded €24 billion. Although the 2024 Annual Foreign Trade Report (COMEX) has not yet been published, ASTIC expects the figures to remain at similar levels.
'Five years after Brexit, the United Kingdom continues to be strategic for our trade thanks, among other factors, to the resilience, competitiveness, experience and specialised knowledge of the companies that make up our supply chain. Companies that help position our goods in the UK and that have successfully adapted to the new reality, including our transport companies, an essential part of the equation considering the approximate weekly transit of 9,000 Spanish lorry journeys to the UK,' said Ramón Valdivia, executive vice-president of ASTIC.
When Brexit officially came into force, the need to comply with new rules and regulations posed a logistical challenge for transport companies, which have had to adapt to and comply with changeable customs and security requirements imposed by the British government.
The need for more health certificates, security declarations and customs controls increased the bureaucratic burden of exporters and logistics companies, something Valdivia states Spanish companies were quickly able to overcome.
'After a difficult start, characterised by a high level of confusion and uncertainty and aggravated by the outbreak of Covid, which led to a significant increase in empty journeys and new administrative regulations that raised operating costs, even leading some transport companies to abandon routes to the United Kingdom, road freight transport between the two countries began to stabilise," adds Valdivia.
'The professionalism, flexibility and know-how of our supply chain has ensured that our export machinery does not run out of steam: bilateral trade relations between the two countries show a historic trade surplus in favour of Spain.'
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