The UK should become a global leader on digital trade, develop an open and honest approach with business, and deliver exporting support to small businesses on day one in order to help boost SMEs sell their goods abroad, leading trade bodies have said.
Led by the Federation of Small Businesses, a number of experts and associations have called on the government to “supercharge SME exporting” by delivering on five major recommendations.
'Huge' opportunities
Only 10% of the UK’s SMEs are currently exporting, according to the report.
Since 2019, as many as 20,000 small businesses have stopped exporting to Europe, according to the think tank UK in a Changing Europe.
This represents a massive challenge and opportunity for the UK to take advantage of, the report argues:
“The growth opportunities for the UK economy from SME exports are huge. SMEs that export are more likely to grow – and more quickly - and be more resilient in times of economic difficulty than those that do not.”
In Autumn 2023, the Labour Party invited the FSB to lead a taskforce and make recommendations that would “secure a measurable increase in the number of UK SMEs exporting”.
The FSB worked together with organisations including the Charted Institute of Export & International Trade, Creative Nature, and the Wine and Spirit Trade Association to produce the report.
Recommendations
The report makes five key recommendations:
1. A cross-Whitehall approach to policy
2. An open relationship with business
3. Global leadership on digital trade
4. Openness to export from day one
5. Addressing the finance gap
Each recommendation includes dozens of smaller points on a range of different areas, including a managed regime for product samples, a senior exports council to provide strategic direction and use of new trade deals to encourage the adoption of paperless trade.
Digital trade and e-commerce
On digital trade, the report called for the UK to help smaller business become more digital in their trade, building on existing work in the sector.
Among the recommendations was a call to support the E-Commerce Trade Commission, convened by the Chartered Institute, and deliver an effective Single Trade Window to help reduce paperwork for smaller businesses.
Last year, the government introduced the UK’s Electronic Trade Documents Act (ETDA), which gives digital trade documentation the same legal footing as paper-based equivalents.
The first fully digitalised trade shipment, sent from Burnley to Singapore, took place on 25 September.
Supply chain
In other developments, the government launched a partnership with the Crown Estate to help the UK secure its energy future, which included commitments on critical minerals in the supply chain and lowering energy bills.
Prime minister Keir Starmer said that the agreement “will drive up to £60bn in investment into the sector, turbocharging our country toward energy security, the next generation of skilled jobs, and lowering bills for families and business”.
This is the first partnership for Great British Energy, one of Starmer and new energy secretary Ed Miliband’s flagship policies, and will see them lease land from the crown estate to build more solar energy.