Opportunities to assist businesses which are small throughout the UK conquer obstacles to transatlantic trade and growth have been outlined in a brand new report made by leading US UK trade connection BritishAmerican Business (BAB).
BAB, in partnership using the Department for International Trade, hosted four virtual roundtables taking together leaders from more than 60 tiny and moderate enterprises (SMEs) throughout London and the South of England, the Midlands, the North of Scotland and England, to hear their success stories and help tackle the difficulties they face.
The resulting article, entitled’ Making a Difference’, nowadays exposes three priority areas in which the government is able to work with SMEs to encourage superior transatlantic trade and investment as part of its ongoing work to support SMEs across the UK:
Lower barriers to trade and buy by aligning standards and regulations.
Solve trade disputes and make it possible for easier business traveling across the Atlantic.
Boost on-the-ground, practical assistance to businesses, such as sourcing reliable suppliers or navigating complicated tax requirements.
Making up ninety nine % of all companies in the UK, producing £2.2 trillion of earnings and employing 16.6 million people, SMEs are actually the backbone on the UK economy. As the article shows, however, they’re frequently hit the hardest by cherry red tape and high operating costs.
For example, Stoke-on-Trent-based ceramics company Steelite International presently faces 25.5 % tariffs on its US exports, in spite of facing small domestic competitors inside the US. TradingHub, a data analytics firm of London, revealed completing tax registration was excessively complex, expensive and time-consuming, particularly when operating in a lot more than a single US state.
The UK government is actually committed to producing more opportunities for SMEs to swap with partners around the world as it moves forward with its impartial trade policy agenda, as well as negotiations are by now underway with the US, New Zealand and Australia. In addition to ongoing trade negotiations, DIT has a system of support all set to aid SMEs print on the guidance they need:
A network of about 300 International Trade Advisors supports UK businesses to export and expand their business worldwide.
With regard to December 2020 DIT create a £38m Internationalisation Fund for SMEs contained England to help 7,600 businesses grow the overseas trading of theirs.
UK Export Finance also has a network throughout the UK that provide specialized support on trade and export finance, especially SMEs.
Negotiations on a trade package with the US are ongoing, and the two sides have now reached broad agreement on a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) chapter. A UK-US SME chapter will provide extra support by improving transparency and making it a lot easier for SMEs to swap, for example by establishing brand new measures on information sharing.
SMEs could also benefit from measures across the rest of a UK-US FTA, on practices as well as change facilitation, company mobility, and digital trade, for example, and we are currently concentrating on SME-friendly provisions throughout the agreement.
Minister of State for Trade Policy Greg Hands said: businesses which are Small are at the center of the government’s trade agenda as it moves forward as an independent trading nation. We have by now made progress that is good on an UK US change deal, – the committed SME chapter will make it easier for them to sell off goods to the US and make the best value of transatlantic opportunities.
Out of Stoke-on-Trent Ceramics, through world reputable medical treatment engineering offered by Huddersfield, to Isle of Wight lifejackets – we are devoted to a deal that operates for UK producers and consumers, and ensuring it really works to the advantageous asset of SMEs long into the future.
Right after a tough 2020 I want to thank the SMEs which took part in this exploration and gave us such invaluable insight into exactly how we are able to use our independent trade policy to ensure we build again better as a result of the economic result of Coronavirus.
BritishAmerican Business Chief Executive Duncan Edwards said:
BAB is proud to be working strongly in partnership with Minister Hands and our colleagues on the Department for International Trade to give this roadshow as well as the Making a Difference article. The feedback we got from businesses that are small across the UK on what they’d love to see from a later UK U.S. Free Trade Agreement echoes the chances the transatlantic economic corridor offers, as well as the deep rooted strength of UK-US relations.
BritishAmerican Business Project Lead Emanuel Adam said: This first step represents a continuation of yearlong efforts manufactured by BAB and policy makers to place the needs as well as interests of cultivating organizations at the center of trade policy. The report not simply showcases how government can put this into motion; it also echoes that the UK Government has currently embraced the’ triangle of activity and support’ that the report recommends. We congratulate the UK Government in its approach and look ahead to doing our part so that even more companies can turn the transatlantic ambitions of theirs into reality.