It’s been a busy week for the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, as we hosted our 2024 graduation and held a raft of events to support traders, including our first Devolved Nations Forum and a webinar to prevent border delays.
In the world at large, Russia hosted BRICS nations in Kazan, while the IMF held an annual meeting in Washington DC to coincide with the release of its global outlook for 2024 – an event attracting financial figures, including UK chancellor Rachel Reeves, from around the globe.
The big picture: We covered the geopolitical fallout from this week’s international events, including implicit criticism of Russia’s war in Ukraine from Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who said that he believed “problems should be resolved only through peaceful means”.
In that vein, Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had formal talks for the first time in five years, following ongoing border skirmishes between the two nations’ troops in the Himalayas.
The UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has faced a tough week, meanwhile. Ahead of his trip to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa, Labour was embroiled in a diplomatic quagmire following accusations of interfering in the US election. This began with a humble LinkedIn post, which asked for volunteers to fly out to the US to engage in some door-knocking on behalf of the Democrats.
This came alongside increasing calls from Commonwealth nations for the UK to pay reparations for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. Not the kind of financial conversations Starmer would have been hoping for, perhaps, while a report by thinktank Policy Exchange highlighted the popularity and potential trade benefits of reducing and removing trade barriers among the group’s members.
Good week/bad week: In good news for the UK, the IMF’s global outlook saw its 2024 growth forecast revised upwards from 0.7% to 1.1%. This hasn’t altered the Labour government’s rhetoric about the need to plug its “financial black hole”, which it still intends to fill next week with what they’ve warned will be a “tough” Autumn Budget.
The outlook offered poorer news for Germany – its forecast was revised down to 0% growth for the year, a figure that lowered overall Eurozone projections.
The week in customs: Members can access a new instalment of Border Brief, which touches on changes to the Safety and Security declarations to be applied to EU imports from the 31 January 2023.
How’s stat: £5bn. That’s the value of export opportunities that the Department for Business and Trade expects its new £2.3m Regulatory Partnership for Growth Fund to unlock.
The fund, targeting trade barriers that holds business back, has been highlighted as especially beneficial for clean energy and life sciences.
Unveiling the fund at his first G20 meeting in Brazil, business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:
“This multi-million-pound fund will unleash the potential of some of the most prominent sectors in the UK, and through our excellent regulators businesses will find it easier to sell their world class goods and services to Brazil and other partners around the world”
Quote of the week: “We should stop the import of tomato paste from China or add a 60 per cent tax on it so that its cost will not be so different from Italian [products].”
Trump’s not even been elected and yet he appears to be starting a trend, as Mutti chief Francesco Mutti told the FT that 60% tariffs should be applied to Chinese competitors – Chinese imports, he said, threaten the “dignity” of traditional Italian products.
What else we covered this week: We hosted a public webinar this week in collaboration with Customs4trade. Addressing how to prevent delays at the border, a webinar poll found that the majority of attendees had experienced issues recently.
We also hosted our first Devolved Nation Forum this week, which took place in Wales. Membership head Sophie Tothill discussed the event and other member offerings in her weekly feature.
Finally, we held our 2024 graduation at Mansion House this week, as Marco Forgione welcomed students to celebrate the completion of their Chartered Institute qualifications. We have a write-up of the occasion here.
True facts: The Sustainable Eel Group, a European-wide body dedicated to protecting the animal, has described the UK’s current practice of exporting eels to Kaliningrad as “bonkers”.
UK exporters claim that the eels are being exported for conservation purposes, however the group’s chair, Andrew Kerr, suggested to the Guardian the eels could then be sent further east to countries where there’s demand for them to stock fish farms.
EU legislation prohibits the export of the eels beyond their natural habitats within EU nations. However, since Brexit, the UK has been able to access a loophole through which they can be exported for conservation purposes.