The UK, a leading trading power and financial center, is the third largest economy in Europe, after Germany and France. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanized, and efficient by European standards but, in terms of gross-added value, represents less than 1 percent of GDP. While UK agriculture produces about 60 percent of the country’s food needs with less than 2 percent of the labor force, the UK is heavily reliant on imports to meet the varied demands of the UK consumer, who also expects year-round availability of all food products. The UK is very receptive to goods and services from the United States. With its $2.92 trillion GDP, the UK is the United States’ top European market and the fifth largest market worldwide for all goods, after Canada, Mexico, China and Japan. Consumer-oriented food and beverage products remain the most important sector for U.S. agriculture, amounting to $1.03 billion (38 percent of the total) in 2018. Demand for U.S. consumer-oriented food products continues to differentiate the UK from many of its European neighbors. The UK is the 11th largest market in the world for U.S. consumer-oriented products.