Archived Updates

Week ending 14th May 2010

The BCC has called on the new Coalition Government to relentlessly focus on supporting exports, as national statistics showed a worrying export performance this week. The Office for National Statistics trade figures for March 2010 showed a £7.5 billion trade gap - much worse than expected, despite the benefit of a competitive exchange rate. This reinforces the BCC’s concern that the necessary re-balancing of the UK economy towards exports is not taking place, and demonstrates the urgent need for the new administration to prioritise support for exporting firms by ensuring the availability of short-term trade finance.

For more information on the BCC’s work on exports or to suggest case studies, please contact John Lucas.

Statistics this week revealed that the tally of growth in manufacturing output has risen to its highest point in fifteen years. The results come on the back of a weakened sterling and an increase in global demand. The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply survey also revealed that new export orders rose at their strongest pace since records began in 1996.

While these figures are clearly encouraging for the economy, whatever the election result means in terms of our next Government, serious public policy change must now underpin politicians’ rhetoric around the need for a rebalanced economy. Addressing the BCC’s calls for a trade finance regime that allows British exporters to compete fairly with businesses from other great trading nations would be a positive start.

For more information on the BCC’s work on exports or to suggest case studies, please contact John Lucas.

In response to politicians’ calls for a rebalanced economy, the BCC is working on a project focussing on ‘manufacturing for export’. We will look at examples of successful manufacturing firms who export as well as investigating problems companies encounter when trying to trade internationally, and what the Government could do to help them.
We are looking for manufacturing businesses to use as case studies. These could be firms who have had a successful track record in innovation and exporting new products, who have reinvented existing products and found new markets, or those who have been unable to export in the past few years because of either the high pound or because of Government policies.
To suggest case studies, please contact John Lucas.

The ONS released the trade statistics for February, which illustrated a marked increase compared to January’s figures. The total deficit on goods and services was £2.1billion, which contrasts favourably with the £3.9billion surplus recorded during the previous month. While trade in services was relatively unchanged, the deficit in trade of goods improved by nearly £2billion to £6.2billion. Imports remained relatively unchanged over the period.

The improvements have been attributed to a recovery following the disruption wreaked by January’s bad weather, although there are signs that the weakened pound is starting to benefit British good exporters after nearly two years of dramatic depreciation.

More details of February’s trade figures can be found here.

For more information of the BCC’s work on international trade, please contact John Lucas.

Week ending 9th April 2010

Last week, the BCC ran a roundtable trade breakfast in conjunction with the Royal Society for the Arts in central London, to discuss how we can make Britain an exporting powerhouse once again. The event attracted senior policy makers from across Whitehall and Westminster, as well as some key exporting SMEs who shared their wealth of experience with the group.

The notes for the event can be found here.

Week ending March 26th 2010

The BCC and the London Chamber of Commerce hosted a seminar on the Services directive on Tuesday 23rd March 2010.  The event was part of a series of seminars being held around the country to highlight the opportunities that the directive offers to service providers in the UK and the rest of the EU.  Speakers from the BCC, BIS and the Enterprise Europe Network described the objective of the new law, namely to encourage more trade in services by tearing down existing barriers, and the practical tools that the directive provides for.  In particular, the new law requires all 27 member states to scrap any national requirements on business that are discriminatory, unnecessary or disproportionate and that therefore limit the freedom of service providers to trade across borders.  To date some 40,000 requirements on business have been scrapped and nearly 600 laws have been adapted to encourage, not discourage trade.  The directive also requires all member states to set up Points of Single Contact where businesses can apply online for all the necessary licenses they need in order to provide their service, as well as find information on how to do business in any EU member state. 

The speakers warned though that not all member states have yet completed the vetting of their national laws, or have Points of Single Contact up and running.  We hope that this process will be completed over the next six months.  In the meantime, businesses can access the fully functioning PSCs through the European Commission's EUGO portal (http://www.eu-go.eu/).  They can also use the UK's PSC (England: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/; Scotland: http://www.bgateway.com/; Wales: http://www.fs4b.wales.gov.uk/; Northern Ireland: http://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/) to apply for and complete licenses that are required in the UK.  Businesses can also find information on the state of play in every member state in the latest Eurochambres survey.

The next seminar will be held in Liverpool on 4th June.  Please contact Karen Clements (k.clements@britishchambers.org.uk) or Maresa Malloy (maresa.malloy@liverpoolchamber.org.uk) if you would like to attend.

This week saw the BCC’s Annual Conference on 18th March at Bafta, with international trade high on the agenda. Trade and enterprise was the key focus of one of the conference sessions, with Lord Sugar and UKTI Chief Executive Sir Andrew Cahn, debating the best strategies for developing UK markets for export. There was agreement that UK exports need to grow to support our economic future and that UKTI should work closely with the Chamber network. In characteristically provocative form, Lord Sugar argued that the UK Government should take a tougher approach to countries that restricted access to their markets for UK firms, and said he had always done the opposite to the advice from banks in terms of currency rates when exporting his products.   

Information on the BCC conference can be found here.

For further information on the BCC’s trade campaign please contact Kevin Hoctor or John Lucas.

This week, we launched our report on trade finance amid the dire balance of trade figures from the Office of National Statistics. The results revealed that the UK’s deficit on trade in goods and services was £3.8 billion in January, compared with a deficit of £2.6 billion in December. Sterling began to fall in earnest two years ago. While it is true that it takes time for the benefits of currency falls to be felt by exporters, benefits should've started to be felt by now - and the ONS figures certainly do not point to an export driven recovery!

Our report, therefore, is certainly timely, as a glance at this week’s papers and the coverage that we have received reveals.  If this, and subsequent governments are serious about rebalancing the British economy towards exporting, they must provide a better framework within which this can take place. Reforming state backed trade finance would be a good place to start.

For further information on the BCC’s report please contact John Lucas, j.lucas@britishchambers.org.uk.

While the Pound took a battering last week - ostensibly over fears of political uncertainly following a hung parliament - there are signs that sterling’s fall in value is starting to finally benefit British exporters. For example, a survey from the EEF this week showed that engineering output, which accounts for half of all manufacturing output, is expected to rise by 3.5% driven by international demand. While there is a long and rocky road ahead, with the right policy decisions, things could be looking up for the UK’s beleaguered exporters.

Week ending 26th February 2010

The importance of how the UK helps support its exporters was made clear to us this week, when the trade and enterprise campaign team travelled to Birmingham to meet Chambers who between them, deliver the regional UKTI contract through West Midlands Chamber of Commerce. The Chambers in that region provide a truly comprehensive service for their local exporters and in doing so, contribute many millions of pounds to the local economy.

We also visited Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, who alongside Chambers in Liverpool and East Lancashire, deliver the UKTI service in the North West. The visits confirmed how effective the Chamber Network is at helping businesses trade internationally, and what an opportunity the wholesale delivery of trade services by Chambers would be for UK PLC.

Week ending 19th February 2010

The Trade and Enterprise team have been looking closely at the problems that exporters face when it comes to trade finance. Although to the uninitiated trade finance might sound like a bespoke activity, to those who trade internationally it literally oils the wheels of global commerce by helping to mitigate the substantial risks of dealing with customers abroad. In line with many other financial facilities, trade finance has become more difficult and expensive during the recession, while the covering of risk by insurers has become prohibitively costly.

Our research has shown that other comparable trading nations offer a much greater degree of support to their exporters. We believe that the Government should offer British exporters the same deal that their rivals abroad enjoy if it is serious about wanting to rebalance the economy towards international trade.

This week we have been working with The Economist on international trade issues, who have identified trade finance as a real problem. The British Chambers of Commerce and Graham and Brown, a member of East Lancashire Chamber, were mentioned in today's edition.