MADRID – The United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union was the major political claim during British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s term in office. However, the consequences of Brexit have been disastrous for international trade, especially for Spain.
Brexit has cost Spain €18 billio in trade with the United Kingdom, expansion.com writes today (Thursday). In 2021, the first full Brexit year – exports of goods and services from the UK to Spain amounted to £13.1 billion. That is around €15.3 billion euros.
Less than during the pandemic
That is even a lower volume than the £14.1 billion of 2020, the pandemic year. UK exports to Spain are a long way from the record £19.5 billion reached in 2019, before Covid and Brexit.
Imports from the UK
Something similar is happening with imports from the United Kingdom of goods and services from Spain. In 2021, shipments from Spain to the United Kingdom amounted to £22.4 billion (€26.2 billion). Trade from Spain to the United Kingdom in 2021 was comparable to 2020 (£22.2 billion). In other words, writes Expansión, in this case, Brexit has prevented trade from recovering from the pandemic.
The 2021 data is a long way from the £31.6 billion foreign trade record Spain had with the UK in 2019. Between what has been lost in imports and exports on both sides since 2019, total trade between the United Kingdom and Spain is now €18 billion less than in 2019, data from Britain’s National Statistics Office shows.
Spain is UK’s sixth-largest trading partner
Spain is among the six European countries with the most commercial exchanges with the United Kingdom, after the Netherlands, Germany, France, Ireland, and Italy.
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