How has Brexit affected the UK Trade with the EU — A Tableau Visualization

Brexit was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom(UK) from the European Union(EU) at the end of 31 January 2020. In June 2016, there was a referendum UK-wide, in which 51.89% of the population voted in favor of leaving the EU and 48.11% voted to remain a member of the EU. On 29 March 2017, the British Government formally notified the EU of the country’s intention to withdraw, and this began the Brexit process. Between 2017–2019, there was a series of negotiations after which a formal agreement between the EU and the UK was reached on the 17th October 2019. There were delays to the withdrawal agreement after which it was formalized in January 2020 and the UK finally left the EU on the 31st January 2020.

The UK continued to participate in the European Union economic activities during a transition period that ended on 31 December 2020 to allow enough time to agree to the terms of a new trade deal finally brokered on 24th December 2020. For the transition period, trade, travel and freedom of movement remained unchanged. However, effective January 1 2021, goods moving between the UK and any EU country are now treated as cross-border transactions, requiring the filing of import and export declarations. The trade deal brokered prevented any tariffs and quotas being introduced as the EU is the UK’s biggest and closest trading partner and that would have made trade more expensive.

This visualization seeks to discover the impacts of Brexit on exports from the UK to the EU. This dataset was retrieved from data.world. The dataset featured 5 columns and 2,890 rows.

The UK exports of goods to the EU plunged by 42.54% in January 2021, the first month since Brexit. This is the biggest monthly decline in British trade for for the 24 years featured in the dataset. There was also the imposition of a new Covid-19 lockdown which might have also influenced this decline. The worth of goods exported fell by almost £6bn.

Imports to the UK fell by 28.42%, also the biggest decline over the 24 years featured in the dataset. The imports fell by a worth of £6.6bn.

Over the 24 years featured in the dataset, Machinery and transport equipment have been the biggest contributors to exports from the UK to the EU with a worth of about £1.3 tn, while unspecified goods having the lowest contribution with £7.845 bn.

Across the export categories, in January 2021 one month after Brexit. Exports of Animals & Vegetables Oils and Fats fell the largest with percentage of 95.2%. The Beverages & Tobacco exports had the biggest percentage of 688.2%. The Machinery and Transport industry still had the highest export value of £3bn and the Animals & Vegetables Oils and Fats industry had the lowest export value of £17m. UK exports of food and live animals to the EU fell by 69.3% in January.

For imports over the 24 years featured in the dataset, The Machinery & Transport equipment has been the UK’s largest import from the EU with a value of almost £2 tn. The unspecified goods industry had the lowest contribution with almost £9 bn.

Across the export categories, in January 2021 one month after Brexit. Imports of Animals & Vegetables Oils and Fats fell the largest with percentage of 97%. The Beverages & Tobacco exports had the biggest percentage of 1071% from the previous month. The Machinery and Transport industry still had the highest import value of £6bn and the unspecified goods industry had the lowest import value of £16m.

The Brexit deal has definitely impacted trade particularly exports of food and live animals and animals & vegetables oils and fats to the EU. Experts have suggested that stockpiling of goods by manufacturers before the Brexit deadline, so they would not need to send as many shipments as usual in January, as well as tighter Covid-19 restrictions among EU countries and the UK are reasons for this decline.

References

1. “Exports to EU Plunge by 40% in First Month since Brexit.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Mar. 2021, www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/12/exports-to-eu-plunge-in-first-month-since-brexit-uk-economy.
2. “Brexit.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Apr. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit.

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