Despite this, the USA is still important to the UK and its importance is increasing. There
has been a decline in our trade with other OECD countries over the whole period,
although the importance of Japan within that has increased, particularly with respect to
imports. Our trade with the oil-exporting countries has declined in importance, as has
our trade with the rest of the world, although this increased between 1990 and 2001. The
rest of the world includes many old Commonwealth countries which at one time were
our biggest markets.
Since 1970, the UK has imported less food and fewer animals for consumption. The
impact of oil can be seen in Table 10.7 as the quantities of oil-related products imported
into the UK have fallen over the period. Manufacturing is clearly the most important
category of good as far as the balance of payments is concerned. Manufacturing has
retained its importance for exports, accounting for 85 per cent of exports in 1970 and 85
per cent in 2001. As far as imports are concerned, the percentage increased a great deal
over 27 years. The UK is now a net importer of manufactured goods. In 2003, the value
of imported manufactured goods was £233,952 million, and the value of exported manufactured
goods was £187,703 million. One reason for this is the increased import
penetration in the UK. Table 10.8 shows import penetration in UK manufacturing for
selected years between 1970 and 2000. It can be seen that import penetration has
increased over this time period.