This week’s trade news includes a raft of announcements aimed at boosting UK growth with implications for trade, as well as a major AI breakthrough for China that sent US stocks reeling and an interest rate cut in Europe as the continent faces economic struggles.
The big picture: UK chancellor Rachel Reeves made a series of announcements aimed at boosting UK growth this week, including a range with implications for trade.
Promising to go “further and faster” than previous governments in targeting growth, Reeves said that she would welcome fresh plans to develop a third runway at Heathrow “in line with legal, environmental and climate objectives”, according to the BBC.
Expansions to both London City Airport and Stansted Airport have already won government support, while expansions to Luton and Gatwick are also under consideration, Reeves said.
She also suggested the government will aim to reopen the Doncaster Sheffield Airport and said that a new partnership between logistics investor Prologis and Manchester Airport Group will secure construction of a new advanced manufacturing and logistics park, which the chancellor says will yield £1bn in investment and 2,000 new jobs.
The government will also host a range of trade trips, Reeves announced, including a trip to India for business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds next month – while she also pledged to make use of “our special relationship with the US under president Trump”.
Good week/bad week: A good week for China’s plans for dominance of clean energy mineral supplies. The FT reports on research published this week which found that the country has issued US$57bn in loans to developing countries for developing supply chains for minerals crucial to the development of clean energy technology.
A bad week for those with heavy investment in US AI-related stocks, particularly computing firm Nvidia. After the emergence of a Chinese AI assistant – apparently developed for a faction of the cost of its US rivals – Nvidia experienced the biggest drop stock value in US history, falling 11% on Tuesday (28 January). It has since recovered slightly.
How’s stat: 2.75% - the interest rate set by the European Central Bank (ECB) this week following the news that the Eurozone’s economy did not grow in the last quarter of 2024. The ECB’s president, Christine Lagarde, said the European economy was “set to remain weak in the near term”, as was consumer sentiment.
Quote of the week: “We would also urge the government to invest in growing the UK’s wider infrastructure system, including road, rail and ports, to keep up with the huge investment taking place around the world.”
Marco Forgione, director general of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, on the UK government’s plans to push forward on developing a third runway at Heathrow Airport.
The week in customs: The government announced the closure of HMRC’s Modernising Authorisations project this week following a spending review. The “improvements in guidance and the customs technical handbooks we have been working on with stakeholders will continue to be delivered”, it noted, however.
A Customs Notice also reminded traders about new safety and security (S&S) requirements that enter into force from today, as well as changes to provisions under the Customs Declaration Service (CDS).
What else we covered this week: This week’s member-exclusive Commodity in Focus feature looked at how the EU’s latest round of sanctions on Russia left out liquefied natural gas (LNG), reflecting many of its countries’ dependence on the energy commodity. While some reports suggest a future sanctions package could include Russian LNG, there is strong resistance from Hungary and other quarters within the bloc.
The latest in our Trade Insights series, meanwhile, looked elsewhere in the EU. Germany’s upcoming elections could see chancellor Olaf Scholz replaced following the vote on 23 February, while France faces ongoing political instability following its own elections last year.
As part of our Member Spotlight features, we spoke to export manager for Sheffield Forgemasters’ Emma Foers. She explained how Chartered Institute support had made it possible to “drill down and find the practical steps” to resolve issues around export controls.
Our Ask the Experts series this week explored how UK businesses can prepare against the possibility of tariffs imposed by the new US government with Chartered Institute international trade legislation senior advisor Garima Srivastava.
True facts: Reuters reported this week on perhaps the earliest relevant import in the history of life on earth. Researchers at NASA examined samples from an asteroid called Bennu, once part of a larger, 4.5bn year-old celestial body, that they suggest contains “chemical building blocks of life”.
The fact that these chemicals “can be formed in space and are widespread throughout the solar system increases the chances that life could have started beyond Earth”, the lead author of the study said.
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