UK’s widening trade in goods deficit ‘largely due to EU’

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s independent statistics agency says the country’s trade in goods deficit widened almost tenfold over the past two decades largely because of a worsening in the trade balance with the other countries in the European Union.

In a study released Monday, the Office for National Statistics said Britain’s total trade in goods deficit widened from 14.7 billion pounds ($19.1 billion) in 1998 to 130.7 billion in 2017 in real terms and that was primarily due to trade with the EU.

From 1998 to 2000, Britain had an average 3.5 billion-pound trade in goods surplus with the EU. In 2001, the surplus turned into a deficit and totaled 93.7 billion pounds last year.

Supporters of the country’s exit from the EU say Brexit can help the country’s trade position.