Opportunities to help small businesses throughout the UK overcome obstacles to transatlantic trade as well as development have been outlined in the latest report produced by leading US UK trade association BritishAmerican Business (BAB).

BAB, in partnership with the Department for International Trade, hosted four virtual roundtables bringing together leaders from over 60 tiny and moderate enterprises (SMEs) throughout London and also the South of England, the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland, to hear their success stories and help address the difficulties they face.

The ensuing report, entitled’ Making a Difference’, nowadays reveals 3 top priority areas in which the government is able to work with SMEs to encourage greater transatlantic trade as well as investment as a part of its ongoing work to help 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.
Increase on-the-ground, practical support to businesses, including sourcing trusted suppliers or perhaps navigating complicated tax demands.
Making up ninety nine % of all companies in the UK, producing £2.2 trillion of earnings and employing 16.6 million people, SMEs are the backbone of the UK economy. As the report shows, nevertheless, they’re frequently hit probably the hardest by reddish tape and substantial operating costs.

For example, Stoke-on-Trent-based ceramics company Steelite International currently faces 25.5 % tariffs on its US exports, despite facing little domestic competition in the US. TradingHub, a data analytics tight in London, revealed finishing tax registration was constantly intricate, time-consuming and expensive, particularly when operating in a lot more than one US state.

The UK government is actually committed to creating far more opportunities for SMEs to swap with partners across the world as it moves forward with its impartial trade policy agenda, and negotiations are by now underway together with the US, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to constant trade negotiations, DIT has a program of support prepared to assist SMEs print on the help and advice they need:

A network of around 300 International Trade Advisors supports UK organizations to export and expand the business of theirs internationally.
In December 2020 DIT build a £38m Internationalisation Fund for SMEs found England to assist 7,600 businesses grow the overseas trading of theirs.
UK Export Finance also offers a network throughout the UK which provide qualified assistance on trade as well as export finance, particularly SMEs.
Negotiations on a trade offer with the US are actually ongoing, and the two sides have recently reached broad agreement on a small and medium-sized business (SME) chapter. A UK US SME chapter will provide additional assistance by improving transparency and making it easier for SMEs to swap, for instance by creating new methods on info sharing.

SMEs may also benefit from measures across the remainder of a UK-US FTA, on customs as well as swap facilitation, company mobility, and digital trade, for instance, and we’re now being focused on SME-friendly provisions across the agreement.

Minister of State for Trade Policy Greg Hands said: businesses which are Small are actually at the center of the government’s trade agenda as it moves forward as an impartial trading nation. We have already made progress which is good on an UK US swap deal, – the dedicated SME chapter is going to make it easier to them to offer for sale goods to the US and produce the best value of transatlantic potentials.

From Stoke-on-Trent Ceramics, through world top medical therapy technology from Huddersfield, to Isle of Wight lifejackets – we’re devoted to a deal that operates for UK producers as well as customers, and ensuring it works to the benefit of SMEs long into the future.

After a challenging 2020 I wish to thank the SMEs that took part in this particular exploration and gave us this sort of invaluable insight into how we can use our impartial trade policy to make sure we build back better as a result of the economic impact of Coronavirus.

BritishAmerican Business Chief Executive Duncan Edwards said:
BAB is actually satisfied to be working closely in partnership with Minister Hands as well as our colleagues at the Department for International Trade to deliver this roadshow and the Making a Difference report. The feedback we got from businesses which are small throughout the UK on what they would like to see through a future 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 initiative belongs to a continuation of yearlong efforts made by BAB and policy makers to place the needs and interests of cultivating businesses at the heart of trade policy. The report not only showcases just how government is able to put this into action; additionally, it echoes that the UK Government has presently welcomed the’ triangle of action and support’ that the article suggests. We congratulate the UK Government in the approach of its and look forward to doing our part so that more businesses can turn their transatlantic ambitions into reality.