British Chambers of Commerce Director General, Shevaun Havilland attended the prestigious UK-US Trade talks at the end of April in Aberdeen, where she spoke about the importance of our trading relationship with the United States.
Shevaun highlighted five clear areas for progress to further grow trade between the US and UK:
1) Increasing Resilience - Using our combined leverage with those of likeminded states to make our supply chains more resilient and future-proofed, as firms are struggling with the effects of the pandemic and the war In Ukraine.
2) Digitalisation - On digital trade let’s slash customs costs and processing times, and use the benefits of digitalisation to drive trade growth. Our initiative with the International Chambers of Commerce UK in establishing a Centre for Digital Trade is an early action we must scale up between both countries.
3) Sustainability - On sustainability and trade, let’s incentivise the measures to protect our world for future generations at the same time as delivering inclusive growth.
4) People and Skills - On goods and people, let’s reach mutual recognition agreements on conformity assessment and professional qualifications and create more flexible mobility arrangements between us. We need to develop durable arrangements for cross-border data flows, ever more essential to transatlantic trade.
5) Supporting SMEs - Ensure that SMEs, particularly our exporters, see the full benefits of closer UK-US trade in how we implement new accords.
CONCULSION:
British Chambers of Commerce research tells us that those companies that export are more likely to seek growth opportunities, are more innovative, and profitable.
As our counterparts from US Chambers of Commerce said in Baltimore in the first set of talks, there is much that we and others can do to help firms grow opportunities with each other and with like-minded partners.
To do this – strengthening working and trade relationships across the Atlantic is crucial.
That’s why the dialogue series is so welcome – we can work together to come up with ideas, and find ways to deepen our common understanding and solutions.
