A busy week for UK trade saw the celebration of the inaugural E-Commerce Week and the next step on the road to the UK joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). There was good news for the government on inflation, some Hokey-Cokey on HMRC helplines and a parliamentary gathering of trade professionals from Teesside.
The big picture: This week was a celebration of the myriad ways e-commerce can help more businesses get started on, or expand, their international trade journey. There were two IOE&IT-hosted webinars, one on how to grow your business using e-commerce (top tips: be agile, think like your customers, experiment and make small but affordable mistakes) and another on the positive social benefit of e-commerce. Other events took place across the UK, while export minister Lord Offord popped into Whittard of Chelsea for a hot chocolate.
Yesterday (21 March), the Joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Act received royal assent, edging the UK a step closer to joining this huge Indo-Pacific trading bloc. As IOE&IT’s director general, Marco Forgione, declared, it’s a move set to reshape UK trade.
Good week: There was a raft of positive economic news from around the world, including better-than-expected EU trade data and a sharper-than-anticipated dip in UK inflation. With inflation now at 3.4%, the Bank of England was happy to hold interest rates at 5.25%, and indicated it may soon start cutting them. But this week’s central banking hat tip goes to the Bank of Japan, where the governor, Kazuo Ueda, ended a years-long experiment with negative interest rates.
Bad week: A bad week for anyone keen to see government get a grip on spending. In a sign of how hard reducing departmental budgets will be, users of HMRC’s telephone helplines were told they’d need to “self-serve” online as phone lines would be out of action for six months of the year, only for HMRC to perform a U-turn after an outcry.
It was also a bad week for Ukrainian grain exports, as the EU agreed to further cuts on Ukranian food imports following months of protests from farmers.
Customs: The government published the new duty suspensions and autonomous tariff quotas and suspensions, which will be live from 11 April 2024 and valid until 30 June 2026.
Meanwhile, some of the difficulties caused by the implementation of physical checks as part of the new Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) were highlighted as controversy raged over the potential closure of an as-yet unused £17m Border Control Post (BCP) in Portsmouth.
How’s stat: 10,000, the number of elephants Botswana’s wildlife minister Dumezweni Mthimkhulu threatened to send to London’s Hyde Park “so Britons can try living with them”. He was enraged by news of the UK’s planned import ban on hunting trophies such as elephant tusks. The Hunting Trophies Prohibition Bill is due for a second reading today (22 March).
Quote: “The time is now. Teesside is what we’ve been waiting for.”
IOE&IT director general, Marco Forgione, addressing a parliamentary reception on the Trade potential of Teesside. The meeting also heard from Teesside Mayor, Lord Houchen and former general secretary of the Labour Party, Lord McNicol.
What else we covered: Elsewhere this week, there was more good news for Teesside, as Benjamin Roche reported on a new cargo deal between the local airport and FedEx. He also looked at news that UK-India trade talks were being put on hold. Danielle Keen covered the prime minister’s announcement earlier in the week on support for SME apprenticeships. Richard Cree reported on a members’ Lunchtime Learning session on the switch to CDS, while Phil Adnett explored the impact of recent geopolitical tensions on the price of oil and offered a member exclusive on the potentially transformative impact of AI on trade.
True Facts: Today is World Seal Day. An excellent opportunity to use the word pinniped. But while seals are classified as pinnipeds – meaning “fin-footed” – unlike walruses and sealions, they don’t walk on their fins at all but drag themselves along when on land, a motion known as ‘galumphing’.