How dependent is the United Kingdom on Switzerland?

A product has a dominant supplier when a single country sells more than 50% of what is bought of it; we flag it separately above 75%.

• Switzerland sells 64% of what the world exports of other wristwatches; next come China (12.7%), Japan (2.9%) and Germany (2.2%). The rest of the world exported 9.7 times what the United Kingdom buys from Switzerland.
• Switzerland sells 71.1% of what the world exports of precious metal watches; next come France (4.5%), Singapore (3.2%) and Germany (2.9%). The rest of the world exported 6.7 times what the United Kingdom buys from Switzerland.
• Switzerland sells 28.7% of what the world exports of other watch and clock parts; next come China (23.1%), France (9.8%) and Thailand (7.3%). The rest of the world exported 39.9 times what the United Kingdom buys from Switzerland.
• Switzerland sells 21.6% of what the world exports of watch movements; next come Japan (44.1%), China (9.7%) and Hong Kong (5.2%). The rest of the world exported 48.4 times what the United Kingdom buys from Switzerland.
• Switzerland sells 14.1% of what the world exports of watch cases; next come China (55.9%), Hong Kong (10.2%) and Malaysia (3.3%). The rest of the world exported 262 times what the United Kingdom buys from Switzerland.
• Switzerland sells 17.1% of what the world exports of glasses for clocks and spectacles, curved or bent; next come Germany (24%), China (14.9%) and France (7.5%). The rest of the world exported 77.2 times what the United Kingdom buys from Switzerland.

Exports from the rest of the world already have buyers; the figure shows scale, not availability.

The United Kingdom is Switzerland’s 9th-largest customer, with 3% of its exports.

• Trade between the United Kingdom and Switzerland
• Who does the United Kingdom rely on?
• Who does Switzerland rely on?
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on China
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Norway
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on the United States
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Ireland
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Spain
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on the Netherlands
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Belgium
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Italy
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Germany
• Trade profile of the United Kingdom
• Trade profile of Switzerland
• All countries

Sources and licenses

• CEPII BACI · Licence Ouverte Etalab 2.0
• Natural Earth · Public domain

Methodology

The data come from CEPII BACI (Etalab 2.0 licence), which reconciles what the exporting and the importing country report, in current USD, FOB. Data up to 2024.

Dependence is the share of a country’s imports (or exports) that each partner accounts for. It does not measure whether a product has a substitute or how much it would cost to change supplier.

The concentration index (HHI) adds up the square of each partner’s share, in percent: it runs from 0 to 10,000. Its equivalent is 10,000 ÷ HHI, the number of partners of the same size that would give that value.

Products are HS4 headings of the 1992 nomenclature (some combine different goods), with a floor of $1 million per product and country.

The EU is the 27 current members in every year; the United Kingdom is outside the EU throughout the series.

Re-exports: countries that act as redistribution hubs carry their notice and the figures are not corrected.