United Kingdom

Political relations

Our bilateral relations are driven by frequent contact at all levels and regular summits such as the 35th UK-France Summit which was held at the Sandhurst Military Academy on 18 January 2018. France and the United Kingdom are the only two European countries with nuclear weapons and are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Both have international ambitions and the political and military tools to match, often sharing similar approaches.

Economic relations

With €31 billion in exports and €28 billion in imports, the United Kingdom was France’s 6th-largest customer in 2017 (6.7% of the total) and its 7th-largest supplier (5.1%). The trade surplus with the United Kingdom stood at €3.5 billion in 2017, behind bilateral surpluses with Hong Kong (€5.5 billion) and Singapore (€4.6 billion). France was the United Kingdom’s 3rd-largest customer (7.5% market share), behind the United States (14.3%) and Germany (11%) and the 5th-largest supplier (5.7%), behind Germany (14.5%), China (9.1%), the Netherlands (8.5%) and the United States (8%). In 2016, the France had a €3.2 billion trade surplus with the United Kingdom in the service sector.

The trade surplus with the United Kingdom fell by nearly €3 billion in 2017. This variation can be explained by a 0.8% drop in exports combined with a 10.9% increase in imports. The trade of aircraft and aerospace equipment largely explains these results. This change is also due to the smaller surplus for pharmaceuticals, which was partially compensated by the significant increase in surplus in the automotive sector. In 2017, the three main sectors with a surplus were wine (€1.1 billion), jewellery (€805 million) and perfumes and cosmetics (€757 million).

The trade in goods between France and the United Kingdom is characterized by intra-sector trade. The greatest intra-sector trade comes firstly from the automotive sector, secondly, aircraft and aerospace and thirdly from pharmaceutical preparations. Trade in services, however, has a much more diverse structure, with exports mainly focused on transport, business services and transport and imports centered around finance, business services and telecommunications.

The United Kingdom and France are major reciprocal investors. In 2016, the United Kingdom had a foreign direct investment stock of €77 billion in France, while France had €97 billion in FDI in the United Kingdom. In 2017, the United Kingdom had 89 FDI projects in France which account for over 6,000 jobs making it the fourth-largest investor in France, behind the United States, Germany and Italy. France has 131 FDI projects creating over 8,000 jobs making it the third-largest investor in the United Kingdom behind the United Kingdom and China.

In 2015, the United Kingdom was the country with the second-largest number of French businesses abroad, with over 3,000 subsidiaries representing approximately €140 billion in annual turnover and 390,000 jobs. The UK’s presence in France a was less significant, with a little over 1,000 British subsidiaries generating €22 billion in annual turnover and 82,000 jobs. Most of France’s major companies are present in the UK, including Engie (17,000 employees), Saint-Gobain (17,000), EDF (14,000), Veolia (14,000), Keolis (14,000), Vinci (9,000) and BNP Paribas (7,500). PSA also bought out Vauxhall (Opel) for €1.75 billion (2,500 jobs and two plants in the United Kingdom).

France’s presence is characterized by certain key projects including the EDF contract for two European Pressurised Water Reactors (EPR) at Hinkley Point, for a total amount of £18 billion. In 2017, Veolia was awarded two contracts for the construction and operation of an incinerator (£1 billion) and for the recycling and management of waste in South London (£338 million). Three consortiums with French businesses (Bouygues, Vinci and Eiffage) were awarded four of the seven contracts to build the UK’s second high-speed rail line. More recently, the joint venture between Keolis (70% share) and Amey won the franchise to run Wales’ rail services (£5 billion over 15 years).