The country of import of goods can be defined in two ways: country of origin; or country of consignment. The country of origin is the country from which the goods originate. The country of consignment is the last Member State where a change has been made to the goods, for example, where there is a change of ownership of the goods, or goods are repackaged or further processed in some way. Note that in the case where the goods simply transit through a Member State, that Member State is not recorded in the trade statistics at all.
In terms of Ireland’s trade with the UK, imports in 2016 which originated in the UK amounted to €16.9 billion. Imports where the UK was the country of consignment amounted to €20.5 billion.
