Made in the UK, Sold to the World

PHOTO: CAMERON VENTI

The Government launched an ambitious new ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ plan Tuesday 16 November to help businesses across the UK double exports and sell their world-class products around the globe.

The 12-point export strategy - published Wednesday 17 November by the Department for International Trade (DIT) - will give businesses the tools they need to become a nation of exporters and reap the benefits of our free trade deals.

It includes an Export Support Service that offers a one-stop shop for exporting advice, and the launch of a new UK Tradeshow Programme better-tailored to help businesses, particularly those outside London and the South East, to attend and promote their products around the world.

DIT will also be expanding its Export Academy – launched in October – to roll it out across all of the UK including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The academy will invite owners and managers of SMEs to access masterclasses, roundtables and networking events that help them overcome common challenges first-time exporters face.

The UK exported £600 billion in goods and services last year (1), but only around one in ten GB businesses currently export (2) – with the number of goods exporters falling behind continental competitors like Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands (3).

Unlocking the UK’s exporting potential will help level up the country and boost the UK’s economy, with government commissioned research estimating that exports supported 6.5 million jobs across the UK in 2016, and showing that exporters pay higher wages. Separate analysis shows that goods exporting businesses are on average 21 percent more productive.

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan is calling on businesses to ‘Race to a Trillion’ by seizing huge untapped opportunities on offer in the world’s fast-growing markets.

The strategy - titled ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ - will see government work hand-in-hand with business to help them to succeed in the global marketplace through a first-class export support framework.

It will help replicate higher levels of exporting seen in the South East of England across all parts of the country to deliver on the Prime Minister’s ambition to level up the UK, and transform the country into a high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity economy.

The 12-point strategy includes:

• Launching the ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ campaign, championing the UK’s priority sectors through an innovative, localised marketing campaign that will promote the best of British goods and services in our towns and cities.
• The Export Support Service provides a single point of contact for exporters to Europe. Since launching in October the new export hotline and online service has helped hundreds of businesses to get exporting (4).
• UK Export Academy expansion to offer SMEs in all parts of the UK, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the chance to learn how to navigate the technicalities of exporting and how to find new opportunities in overseas markets.
• A new UK Tradeshow Programme will be bigger and better targeted to give UK companies, especially SMEs, a leg-up to exhibit their first-class products at the world’s biggest tradeshows.
• UK Export Finance - our world-leading export credit agency - will expand its offer with new products and a wider delivery network that will make it easier for UK exporters to secure business from overseas buyers.
• Export Champions, ensuring businesses can build and learn from exporting successes through business-to-business networking and peer-to-peer learning.
• Internationalisation Fund, open to SMEs in England, will aim to grow international sales, and has facilitated £4 million of support to SMEs attending Trade Fairs.

1. Source: ONS UK Trade September 2021
2. Source (data is for 2019): ONS Annual Business Survey
3. Sources (data is for 2017): OECD Trade by enterprise characteristics and OECD Structural and Demographic Business Statistics
4. Source: DIT Management Information collected from ESS telephone and digital systems. Since operational to 5 November, the telephone helpline (operational 1 October) received 786 enquiries and the digital enquiry service (operational 22 July) received 785 enquiries. Data has had basic quality assurance checks and is subject to revision.

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