In addition, the 7,600-member Royal Marines provide commando units for amphibious assault and for specialist reinforcement forces in and beyond the NATO area. The United Kingdom is one of the largest European economies and one of the world's major trading powers. London ranks with New York as a leading international financial center. After Canada, Japan, and Mexico, the United Kingdom is the fourth- largest U.S. export market. The U.K. is America's most important investment partner.
British industry is a mixture of publicly and privately owned firms.
Several important industries are publicly owned, including steel, railroads, coal mining, shipbuilding, and certain utilities. Since 1979, the British Government has privatized most large state-owned companies, including British Steel, British Airways, British Telecom, British Coal, British Aerospace, and British Gas. The United Kingdom is an energy-rich nation with significant reserves of oil and gas in the North Sea and large coal resources. U.K. offshore areas should be an important source of continued production and new discoveries for some years. U.S. oil and oil-service companies participate actively in the North Sea oil industry and consider the United Kingdom an attractive environment for future investment.