**Introduction** Based on the Sustainable Trade Index 2025, the United Kingdom currently has the largest number of trade agreements in force among the economies covered, ranking first with 39 agreements. This reflects the cumulative effect of continuity agreements carried over after Brexit alongside newer bilateral and regional agreements. By comparison, other major economies included in the Index maintain smaller agreement networks, either because they rely more heavily on multilateral disciplines or because their trade strategies prioritize fewer, deeper agreements rather than breadth. As a result, the metric captures the UK’s unusually dense agreement footprint rather than the qualitative scope or depth of individual deals[1].
