One of the most important forms of foreign economic relations for the UK is the export of capital. In terms of direct foreign investment, the country ranks third after the United States and Japan. Profits from the export of capital are twice as high as commodity exports.
The geography of capital exports has changed significantly. If earlier the main sphere of application of capital was developing countries, now it is industrialized (first of all, the USA, the EU countries). The most attractive for investors are such service sectors as trade, tourism, finance.
The import of capital to the UK has also increased mainly from the USA, EU countries and Japan. Basically, capital is invested in industries closely related to scientific and technological progress and oil production.
Britain’s participation in global merchandise trade has been declining over the past decade. In 2000, the value of merchandise exports was $284.1 billion. The UK’s share in world exports in 2000 compared to 1999 decreased from 5.1% to 4.5% (fifth place in the world). The value of imports in 2000 was $337.0 billion. – 5.1% of the world (fourth place in the world).
The UK’s position in world exports and imports of services is more significant: second in the world in exports and fourth in imports of services. In 2000, exports of services amounted to $99.9 billion. (7% of the world), imports – $ 82.1 billion. (5.7% of the world). The country had at the end of the XX century. a negative trade balance – 52.9 billion dll.
For export, the UK supplies a variety of engineering products: vehicles; automatic machines; aircraft engines; knowledge-intensive devices; agricultural machinery and equipment; aerospace products; electronic equipment; petroleum products; products of the chemical industry; The country gives 1/5 of the world export of alcoholic beverages (Scotch whiskey).
The UK’s main trading partners are Germany and the US. In general, the EU countries account for 1/2 of the UK’s trade turnover. Trade with Japan is growing rapidly.
An important role in the export and import of Great Britain began to play such countries of Southeast and East Asia as Singapore, South Korea and the special administrative region of China – Hong Kong.
For the Republic of Belarus, the UK is an important trading partner. In 2001, the UK’s share in belarus ‘ foreign trade turnover with non-CIS countries was
5.26% ($284.1 million )