Dear Colleague,
INTERNATIONAL TRADE WEEK MADE IN THE UK, SOLD TO THE WORLD
As part of our inaugural International Trade Week, we have today launched our Export Strategy ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’.
This is the first Export Strategy since the UK became a sovereign trading nation. I hope you will join the Government in promoting the benefits of exporting to local business, supported through our export campaign. Some businesses, particularly SMEs, can face a range of barriers to exporting, with costs, lack of knowledge, constraints in capacity and networks among the most often cited. This Government is committed to working hand-in-hand with business to help them to succeed in the global marketplace through a first-class export support framework.
As part of the ‘Race to £1 Trillion’ we are setting an ambition and a challenge to boost exports – unleashing the potential of businesses across the UK and building our reputation as a global exporting powerhouse. Research estimates that exports supported 6.5 million jobs across the UK in 2016, 74% of which were outside of London. Separate survey analysis has found that fewer than one in ten businesses in the UK exported, and these businesses are not evenly distributed across the country. Trade through exports means jobs, investment into local communities and our public services, including police, the NHS and schools. Evidence also shows exporters are more productive and pay higher wages.
Our strategy will set out tangible ways in which we can support businesses to take advantage of existing and new markets, while levelling up the country.
Our Strategy features a range of new support measures for businesses, including:
• An expansion of the Export Support Service, a one-stop shop for exporting advice, which provides a single point of contact for businesses exporting to Europe, and will be expanded to cover more global markets as announced in the Budget.
• The UK Export Academy will expand to offer SMEs in all parts of the UK, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the chance to learn how to navigate the technicalities of exporting and how to find new opportunities in overseas markets.
• A pilot of the UK Tradeshow Programme will give UK companies, especially SMEs, a leg-up to exhibit their first-class products at the world’s biggest tradeshows. • An expansion of UK Export Finance’s products and a wider delivery network that will make it easier for UK exporters to secure business from overseas buyers.
• Launching the ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ campaign, championing the UK’s priority sectors through an innovative, localised marketing campaign that will promote the best of British goods and services in our towns and cities.
As part of International Trade Week, through our trade hubs and army of export advisers dotted around the UK, over 2500 businesses have signed up to over 100 events and workshops – which will support and encourage businesses to sell globally. From webinars on key global markets (e.g. doing business in Singapore) through to Free Trade Agreement workshops, with events being run by both Government and businesses, there is something for every business.
We hope that you will support this crucial campaign by promoting it to businesses in your constituency – building momentum as we build back better.
The full strategy has been published online here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/export-strategy-made-in-the-…
Further information on how you can support businesses in your constituency to export will follow.
