How does the UK’s trade with China and Taiwan compare?

We’ve been asked to have a look at comments made by the Conservative MP and former minister David Davis MP on a recent episode of Leading, an interview strand of The Rest is Politics podcast, hosted by Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell. 

In the podcast, Mr Davis and Mr Stewart discussed trade barriers with China. Mr Davis said graphics chips in computers come from Taiwan, which was then followed by this exchange: 

RS: “Nobody’s putting tariff barriers against Taiwan, they’re putting tariff barriers against China”.

DD: “But that’s where it comes from… Most of our trade is with Taiwan, that’s the first thing to know about this”. 

It’s not entirely clear what comparison Mr Davis was making. We’ve contacted him and will update this blog if we receive a reply. 

But official statistics show that the total value of the UK’s trade with China is greater than its trade with Taiwan. 

In the four quarters to the end of Quarter 1 2024, the value of total trade between the UK and Taiwan was £7.2 billion. In the same period, the UK’s trade with China was worth £86.5 billion. Taiwan was the UK’s 35th largest trading partner, and China the 6th largest.

While the UK doesn’t recognise Taiwan as a state, since 1991 the UK and Taiwan have held annual ministerial trade talks. 

Update: We are grateful to Mr Davis for clarifying that he intended to refer solely to supply of very advanced technology, specifically logic chips (<10 nanometres), the majority of which are made in Taiwan, rather than to the UK’s overall trade, or its trade in tech products generally, with Taiwan and China.