BCC: New trade measures welcome – but must reach smaller companies

• BCC additional survey results reveal companies need help to crack new export markets
• BCC: New Govt trade finance and credit insurance must ‘grease the wheels’ of Britain’s export machine

 Alongside the Government’s trade white paper, and disappointing December 2010 official trade statistics, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has released further results from its own international trade survey of 8,000 businesses suggesting that additional support is needed to help companies crack new export markets.

• Of those businesses that currently export, over 80% trade with other EU members, with comparatively fewer trading with emerging markets. This means Britain’s SME exporters are reliant on slow-growth markets – rather than countries experiencing rapid economic growth.
• A third of exporting companies believe they have lost more than 10% of their export sales due to difficulties obtaining trade finance and export credit insurance, leading to millions of pounds of lost business for UK plc.
• One in ten exporting companies feel they have lost business to overseas competitors – in countries like China, Germany, and the USA – as a direct result of their inability to access competitive trade finance products and services.

Commenting on the Government’s trade white paper, Dr Adam Marshall, Director of Policy and External Affairs at the British Chambers of Commerce, said:

 “Trade finance and credit insurance grease the wheels of Britain’s export machine. As we have repeatedly argued over the last three years, that ‘grease’ has been in short supply. This has left many small- and medium-sized companies unable to start trading in new markets, or increase the amount they export.

“The new trade finance schemes and the ‘Export-EFG’ scheme announced today are a direct response to BCC’s lobbying, and represent a real step forward. That is provided they get assistance to small companies quickly, efficiently, and at a reasonable cost. BCC data shows that the Export Credits Guarantee Department, our national export credit agency, is unknown by two-thirds of SMEs. That has got to change over the coming months if any of these new finance schemes are to make a real difference.

“Yet even with these improvements, the British Government still does not offer the same level of support to small and medium-sized exporters as some of our major competitor countries. There’s more for the Government to do over the coming months. Ministers need to announce practical measures to help small companies across the UK realise that exporting could be their path to growth – and at the same time, ensure that we’re promoting British innovation and ingenuity in fast-growing markets overseas.”