B/ Britain’s Partners

1-Britain’s foreign trade after the EEC establishment
When European Economic Community EEC was created it consisted of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. As you can see, there is no UK there. The first question that comes to us is why. The answer is very simple – economic interests.

In 1958 export of UK was distributed like this :
EEC – 13%
Rest of Europe – 13%
The Commonwealth – 52%

So trade with Commonwealth was much more important for the UK. It was dependent on the trade with the colonies. That has lead t o a conclusion, that it is more beneficial for the UK to keep better relations with the Commonwealth than with EEC.

2- Changes in Britain’s foreign trade destination:
Later the economic export conditions have changed. There was a Mutual Aid Committee MAC established. MAC was asked to give evaluations of Britain’s interests regarding EEC and the Commonwealth. First of all MAC evaluated factors of foreign trade and their analysis have indicated that in a long term close relations with Europe is a priority for Britain.

Indeed, in 1960-1962 exports to EEC have increased by 55%. Between 1955 – 1965 exports to the Commonwealth have decreased by 50% and has equalled with the exports to the EEC, which was enough for the UK to change its mind and later join the EEC.

Today, while analysing UK export to the largest 25 its trade partners we can see those 25 countries share more than 85% of total UK export. Among these 25 countries, those who are in the EU share more than 51% of total UK exports. 14.6% of the export goes to the USA and only 3.8% of export goes to the former Commonwealth countries

3-Table: Top 25 trading partners by month- March 2009 (₤ million)

A/ UK Exports

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