Catalan exports to UK back on track 5 years after Brexit, but British imports still lag behind

Catalan exports to the UK were back to pre-Brexit levels for the first time in 2023, with a 6.7% increase on 2019, according to Catalonia Trade & Investment, a Catalan government agency also known as ACCIÓ.

The year Brexit came into effect, in 2020, exactly five years ago now, Catalonia's sales to the United Kingdom dropped by 23.5%.

Talking to the Catalan News Agency (ACN), the Catalan foreign minister, Jaume Duch, said the new regulations brought some "obstacles" in trade and made it more complicated for Catalans to get residence or work permits.

Catalonia Trade & Investment's international trade director, Cristina Serradell, said both the pandemic and other circumstances made the implementation of the new regulations far from smooth. "This has generated loads of doubts and confusion," she said to ACN.

Catalonia exports vehicles (32.1% of all exports), equipment (6.6%), and electric material (6%), as well as food, and design products. "Brits are sophisticated consumers and there are new trends all the time," explained Serradell.

Thus, the most recent official data, from 2024, show that the UK is Catalonia's main trade partner outside the EU and it is only behind France, Germany, Italy and Portugal.

British imports still behind pre-Brexit levels

Yet, sales of British products to Catalonia have not overcome the Brexit bump.

"Catalan companies have replaced UK products for other suppliers, especially European ones," said minister Duch. "Brexit creates more problems for Brits than for us Catalans."

University exchanges drop by 40%

Five years on, other fields are still not flowing at the same pace as before the EU and the UK parted ways on January 31, 2020, including university student exchanges, which have dropped by 40%, according to government data.

In the academic year 2018-19, around 780 Catalan students moved to Great Britain through exchange programs, but this figure had dropped to 516 in 2022-23.

Foreign minister Duch is willing to see a program such as Erasmus with UK universities resuming. He hopes "the toughest phase of Brexit is left behind" as Labour is now in power. According to him, this may prompt new agreements such as university exchanges.