Patricia Hewitt: Today’s new Export Strategy is an important step to boost British exports around the world
Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt
| PoliticsHome
Board of Trade Adviser and former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt welcomes the UK's new Export Strategy launched today by International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, with a national ambition to raise exports to 35% of GDP.
Whatever your view of Brexit exports are vital to British jobs and living standards.
As a former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, I am delighted that today, UK exports are at a record high, both in real terms - £620 billion - and as a percentage of GDP - just over 30%. We have an unrivalled position in the creative industries as well as one of the world’s strongest university and science sectors. But we need to do even more to support our businesses - including SME’s - to seize the opportunities that exist right across the world.
Today, the International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, will launch the UK’s new Export Strategy with a national ambition to raise our exports to 35% of GDP - designed to take us towards the top of the G7 - and offering new help to business in starting or growing their exports. Building on the GREAT campaign and the government’s industrial strategy, the Export Strategy sets out a welcome range of measures including new online tools and more support for export finance.
Over the next 10 to 15 years, about 90% of global economic growth will come from outside the EU. By 2030, China will have 220 cities each with a population of more than a million. By 2050, India will probably be the world’s second largest economy. And by 2060, there are likely to be over 1 billion middle class Africans.
Over the last eight years, as chair of the UK India Business Council, I saw for myself both the contribution that British business makes to India - and the benefits they receive. Exporting doesn’t just mean new customers and a bigger market for your product. It brings you into contact with new demands, new skills and new ideas. JCB, for instance, which made its first investment in India nearly 40 years ago, first learnt to adapt its machines to Indian conditions, then found that they could use India as a base from which to export to new markets, particularly in the developing world, and continues to learn from the collaboration of British and Indian workers. In other words, supporting more businesses to export more and invest more in the rest of the world is a vital part of tackling our productivity problem and supporting jobs and living standards at home.
I supported Liam Fox’s initiative to re-establish the Board of Trade, after an interval of nearly 200 years! And his new Export Strategy will, I hope, be welcomed throughout the business community.
Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry from 2001 to 2005 and is an Adviser to the Board of Trade.
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