Progress with trade negotiations

The Department acknowledged that “agreements are only as good as the businesses that utilise them”.39...

The Department acknowledged that “agreements are only as good as the businesses that utilise them”.39 It told us that its new export strategy, published in November 2021, had been informed by our previous report on support for exporters, and that a particular focus of the new strategy was on supporting … Read more The Department acknowledged that “agreements are only as good as the businesses that utilise them”.39 It told us that its new export strategy, published in November 2021, had been informed by our previous report on support for exporters, and that a particular focus of the new strategy was on supporting small businesses to export.40 For example, it said as a result of our report it was working more closely with UK Export Finance which is focusing more on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the work that it does.41 The Department’s new export strategy includes a 12-point plan to encourage UK exports and it explained to us that the big change that it has made is the introduction of the Export Support Service. The Department said that this service aims to help small UK businesses to trade with the EU, though the Department intends to widen this to the rest of the world in the future. It told us that it had received positive feedback from businesses on its new strategy, including from organisations like the Federation of Small Businesses.42 We asked the Department why it had cut the Tradeshow Access Programme and funding for the British Chamber of Commerce overseas, if it wanted businesses to export more. The Department wrote to us after the evidence session to explain that it has replaced the Tradeshow Access Programme with a new UK Tradeshow Programme which was launched as part of its 2021 export strategy. The new programme continues to support businesses to exhibit at trade shows and it also supports smaller companies to visit tradeshows prior to exhibiting to help them make a choice about whether exhibitions should be part of their export strategy.43 Show less