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On the 7th September 2009, at the launch of HSBC’s Going International report, Lord Digby Jones, Chairman of the International Business Advisory Board of HSBC said: “The only way the UK will recover quickly and sustainably from the recession is by trading her way out. That calls for our continued, indeed our increased, commitment to the export of goods and services. Our manufacturing sector is among the best in the world for added value innovation and our service sector exports more than virtually any other country. Exposing a business to overseas competition makes it more competitive, more productive and better equipped to deal with the challenges of globalisation.”However, the perception and reality of what it takes to tradeinternationally are often quite different, and lots of UK SMEs are being overly cautious when it comes to acknowledging the positive effect of international trade and it is preventing them from realising the potential business growth they could benefit from.Nevertheless, since the economic crisis began, the number of businesses already trading overseas who looked to move into new market places increased, whilst the number of SMEs who took the international plunge also rose.
Some of these businesses decided to export due to a downturn in the national market or due to limited growth opportunities in the UK, whilst other had already planned to take advantage of government funded initiatives such as the “Passport for Export” scheme ran by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI). Trade winds point to the EU Companies new to exports and international trade tend to opt to trade close to home. As such France (64 per cent), Germany (51 per cent), Spain (41 per cent) and Ireland (40 per cent) are the key markets for companies with a new found international appetite. Only 14 per cent are considering China and only seven per cent are targeting India.
However, companies with an existing international profile are much more flexible with their trade destinations. Nevertheless, France, Germany and North America are still the UK’s most common international trading hubs, while China, India and Scandinavia all feature prominently. In addition, over the past few months, the weakness of the Pound Sterling against the Euros has led to the UK becoming much more competitive as a sourcing market for European importers, in particular French importers. The competitive exchange rate has sparked such an interest in exporting that the Business Link’s online UK Trade Tariff tool, which helps find commodity codes to classify goods for export, received a record 30,000 visits in September 2009. Doing business with France The UK and France have traditionally been major economic and trade partners, bilateral trade has been multiplied by three over the last twenty years and the two economies are increasingly interdependent
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