The USA is the UK's largest single export market. In 2024, UK goods exports to the USA reached $73.5bn, up 14% since 2022. Imports from the USA came to $94.7bn, down 2%.
Behind those totals sit two very different trades. The UK sells the USA cars, jet engines, medicines and whisky. The USA sells the UK energy, aircraft and gold. Both sides trade heavily in aerospace and pharmaceuticals, often between parts of the same companies.
This article uses ExporterIQ's UK ↔ USA corridor data to show what moves in each direction, which products are growing, and where the openings are for smaller exporters.
The trade at a glance
- 2022: UK exports to the USA $64.3bn, imports from the USA $96.9bn
- 2023: exports $72.0bn, imports $94.9bn
- 2024: exports $73.5bn, imports $94.7bn
UK exports have grown in both years since 2022, while imports have edged down, mainly because the USA is selling the UK far less natural gas than in 2022.
What the UK sells to the USA
The ten largest UK exports to the USA in 2024:
- Cars: $9.81bn, up 43% since 2022
- Jet engines and gas turbines: $5.36bn, up 35%
- Vaccines, blood products and biologic medicines: $3.30bn, up 39%
- Packaged medicines: $2.84bn, down 21%
- Aircraft parts: $2.54bn, up 26%
- Gold: $2.44bn, up from $0.12bn
- Spirits, mainly whisky and gin: $1.64bn, down 4%
- Refined fuels: $1.49bn, down 48%
- Platinum: $1.45bn, up 30%
- Hormones and related medicines: $1.11bn, almost unchanged
Three industries carry the trade. Cars are the single largest line. Aerospace (engines and aircraft parts) adds $7.90bn. Pharmaceuticals (biologics, medicines and hormones) add $7.26bn.
London's role as a precious metals centre also shows: gold, platinum and silver together reached $4.26bn in 2024.
The UK exports growing fastest
For smaller manufacturers, the most useful signal is in the mid-sized lines growing quickly. Among UK exports to the USA worth over $50m in 2024:
- Food preparations, including malt extract: $116m, more than seven times the 2022 level
- Thermometers and measuring instruments: $129m, up 99%
- Watches: $73m, up 94%
- Batteries: $190m, up 93%
- Furniture and door fittings: $156m, up 90%
- Harvesting and farm machinery: $139m, up 87%
- Petrol engines: $516m, up 86%
- Paints and varnishes: $57m, up 78%
- Seats and furniture seating: $482m, up 64%
- Diesel engines: $797m, up 53%
- Forklift and works trucks: $982m, up 49%
- Taps and valves: $627m, up 39%
- Construction machinery: $554m, up 34%
Engineering and machinery dominate that list, alongside a handful of consumer lines such as watches and food preparations.
Some lines have fallen. Pharmaceutical ingredients (heterocyclic compounds) dropped 76% to $334m. Women's clothing fell 43% to $101m, and paintings and artworks 30% to $923m.
What the UK buys from the USA
The ten largest UK imports from the USA in 2024:
- Jet engines and gas turbines: $14.80bn, up 12%
- Gold: $10.74bn, up 56%
- Crude oil: $10.71bn, down 6%
- Refined fuels: $4.65bn, up 156%
- Natural gas and LPG: $3.07bn, down 77%
- Aircraft: $2.98bn, up 58%
- Aircraft parts: $2.80bn, up 44%
- Packaged medicines: $2.54bn, down 52%
- Vaccines, blood products and biologics: $1.86bn, up 9%
- Medical instruments: $1.60bn, almost unchanged
Energy is the largest group: crude oil, fuels and gas reached $18.43bn in 2024, but that is down from $26.77bn in 2022, when the UK bought record volumes of US natural gas. Aerospace (engines, aircraft and parts) reached $20.57bn.
Further down the list, the UK also bought $1.59bn of wood pellets and fuel wood (up 54%), $521m of cosmetics (up 15%) and $142m of generating sets (more than double).
One trade, two directions: whisky and barrels
Some products show how closely the two economies are linked. The UK sold the USA $1.64bn of spirits in 2024, led by Scotch whisky and gin. In the other direction, it bought $208m of casks and barrels from the USA, more than double the 2022 figure, along with $708m of ethyl alcohol (up 74%). Scotch is traditionally matured in casks that first held American bourbon.
Aerospace works the same way: the UK sells the USA $7.90bn of engines and parts and buys $20.57bn back, as engines, airframes and components cross the Atlantic at each stage of production.
What changed in 2025
The figures above run to 2024. In 2025, US trade policy changed. On 2 April 2025 the USA introduced a 10% tariff on imports from all countries, including the UK. Under the US-UK Economic Prosperity Deal, implemented in June 2025, the first 100,000 UK cars exported to the USA each year pay a total tariff of 10%, cars above that quota pay 25%, and certain UK aerospace products are no longer subject to tariffs (White House fact sheet).
For exporters, that makes product-level data more important, not less. The tariff a product faces now depends on what it is, and the buyers worth targeting depend on which lines are still growing.
What this means for UK exporters
- Look beyond the headline sectors. Cars, aerospace and pharmaceuticals dominate, but machinery, instruments, fittings and food preparations are growing fastest.
- Know your tariff. Since April 2025, most UK goods entering the USA pay at least 10%. Check the rate for your product before you price.
- Find buyers who already import your product. US importers of a product line are the most likely buyers of a new supplier in it.
- Verify the buyer. A first order from a new US buyer deserves the same checks as any other: registration, trade activity and contact details.
About our data
The figures in this article come from the UK's official trade statistics, as reported to the United Nations (UN Comtrade) and published by HMRC, classified by 4-digit product code and valued in US dollars. Both directions are measured as the UK records them: UK exports to the USA, and UK imports from the USA.
The USA publishes its own statistics on the same trade, and its figures differ, as two countries' records of the same trade usually do, because of timing, valuation and how each country assigns origin. The category "commodities not specified" ($1.89bn of UK exports in 2024) covers goods the UK reports without a product code, mainly low-value and confidential shipments.
Explore the corridor
The UK ↔ USA corridor on ExporterIQ shows what moves in each direction, product by product, and how it has changed since 2022.
Written by Andre Biyog, ExporterIQ.
