Fox: Firms must boost exports after Brexit

Liam Fox targets £100bn a year leap in overseas trade as he hires City veteran to spearhead new strategy

Businesses have “nothing to fear and everything to gain” from overseas trade after Brexit, Liam Fox told The Daily Telegraph as he unveiled plans to boost exports by £100billion a year. The International Trade Secretary today launches a new export strategy to exploit the opportunities of Brexit. Dr Fox has hired John Mahon, former head of Barclays Corporate Bank, to spearhead the export strategy in the role of director-general for exports.

BUSINESSES have “nothing to fear and everything to gain” from overseas trade after Brexit, Liam Fox told The Daily Telegraph as he unveiled plans to boost exports by £100bn a year.

The International Trade Secretary today launches the Government’s new export strategy in an attempt to exploit the opportunities of leaving the European Union and give companies a competitive edge over international rivals.

The strategy will say that Britain is “punching above our weight but below our potential” and that the UK is ranked “mid-table” in international exports as a proportion of GDP.

Measures to help businesses tap into overseas markets include offering information, advice and practical help, as well as ways for companies to learn from each other.

A website, great.gov.uk, provides a “one-stop shop” for information on how to export and includes thousands of foreign procurement contracts that are up for grabs.

Ministers have also made their diaries available several months in advance so businesses can contact them ahead of foreign trips to ask them to lobby on their behalf. The Government has also set up a network of “trade champion” businesses nationwide that are already exporting and can “encourage and inspire” others to do the same.

Dr Fox said: “There is nothing to fear and everything to gain from businesses having faith in their own abilities to sell British goods and services overseas. I believe the UK has the potential to be a 21st century exporting superpower.

“In the knowledge economy, Britain has already stacked its shelves with what the rest of the world wants.

“This is proper Tory policy, doing only what government needs to do, being pro-business and preparing Britain for the post-brexit world.

“The Government will be there alongside any small business that wants to take the leap into exporting.”

The Department for International Trade estimates there are 400,000 firms that could export, but do not.

Baroness Fairhead, minister for trade and export promotion, said the UK has the potential to export much more. “This export strategy sets out to change that and to increase exports, taking us from the middle of the G7 to near the top. This is ambitious, but achievable,” she said.

The hope is that the new initiative will increase annual exports by £100bn a year to £720bn and increase exports as a proportion of GDP, from 30pc to 35pc.

Dr Fox has hired City veteran John Mahon, formerly head of Barclays Corporate Bank, to spearhead the export strategy in the role of director-general for exports.

There are a lot of myths about exporting. Perhaps the most persistent is that “Britain does not export anything anymore”. It is the little brother of “Britain does not make anything anymore”. In fact, the UK exports more now than we have ever done, in real terms or as a percentage of GDP – £620bn, or just over 30pc respectively. It is more difficult to see exports than it used to be because far more are in the form of services or digital goods (we are the world’s second-largest services exporter) and because so many cross-border deals now happen within companies.

For example, take Playdale, a Cumbrian family business that I recently met. They manufacture playgrounds on the edge of the Lake District and – with support from the Government – export them across the world, to nearly 50 countries. The measures in the export strategy will provide support to even more great British success stories just like Playdale.

Exporting is not just about container ships it’s also about the high value educational, life sciences, technology and financial services that we sell internationally. However, firms such as Playdale are often the exception – a lot of exporters do not think of themselves as exporters. If your employer has a presence in more than one country, the chances are you are an exporter. If not, you probably supply someone who does export. Likewise, tourism is a form of exporting, it is just that the customer comes to you.

That’s the premise behind the Department for International Trade’s Export Champion campaign, where everyday businesses of all shapes and sizes from around the UK form a nationwide network of companies that are ambassadors for international trade. They share their success stories, offer practical advice and lead by example, under the rallying call “If We Can, You Can”.

That is one reason why we now have a dedicated Department for International Trade – because trade drives the economy far more than most people realise. But when the department was set up, after the EU referendum, we quickly realised that we could not afford to just look at what you might term “trade policy”: Brexit, free-trade agreements and the like. The reasons why people do or do not export are often a lot less newsworthy – cultural factors, poor information, or a lack of contacts or finance. This means we also scaled up the existing export support programme so our international network of trade advisers in 108 countries are providing the best possible support.

Exports have become more digital and more service-based, so how we approached them had to change as well. Today the Government will be launching its Export Strategy, a modern, digitally focused plan to support UK businesses increase exports to 35pc of GDP. It is not an easy goal, but it is one we have the ability, as a country, to hit.

Government has a key role to play in such things as export advice and export finance, but there is also a thriving private-sector market in export advisory services. We have worked hard to ensure that we are not replicating – or working against – these existing firms.

We have sought views from companies of all sectors and sizes and asked what barriers to exporting they face, and so and we have concentrated effort where the Government can make most difference.

The things we do focus on put the user – businesses – firmly in mind. For example, creating a single online portal to report market barriers. Government can often fix these without any formal government-togovernment agreement – if only it knows about them.

It also means being more joined-up ourselves. Businesses do not expect their customers to understand their internal structure, and government should not be any different. This means that we are introducing a “no wrong door” policy to ensure that companies are signposted to the right support regardless of which part of government they approach.

But our Export Strategy is not the once-and-for-all final answer. When Apple made the iphone they did not launch Version 1.0 and then stop innovating. Why should government be any different? This is the start of a conversation. We will adjust the strategy depending on how things work – or do not work – in practice. And we will keep listening to businesses as we do.

‘When Apple made the iphone they did not launch Version 1.0 and stop’