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Big steps needed to hit Osborne's £1 trillion exports target

UK SMEs need more helping in exporting their products and services if the Chancellor’s target of £1 trillion annual exports by 2020 is to be met, say a group of MPs.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published a report on supporting UK exporters overseas and found France, Germany Italy were growing exports faster.

Evidence was cited in the report from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI), who both used £420 million on promoting UK overseas growth between 2012-2013.

Both organisations were estimated to have used around 2,000 staff in total, across international locations.

A 10% year-on-year growth is now needed to hit the Chancellor’s target, however, growth has been flat for the last two years.

The PAC set out a number of recommendations including an investigation of how UK border controls may discourage visiting foreign businesspeople, and a joint ‘road map’ plan to sync UKTI, FCO and BIS efforts on exports.

Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said: “Despite some progress by the FCO and UKTI in supporting UK exporters overseas, the UK is not performing as well as Germany, France and Italy.

“In 2012-13, UKTI and FCO spent £420 million to promote exports but we are currently not on track to achieve the Chancellor’s target of doubling the value of our exports to an annual £1 trillion by 2020. For the last two years, the annual value of UK global exports has been flat.

“If the UK is to hit this target, then we will not only have to maintain our current market share in advanced markets such as the US and Europe, but also secure new exports to the new, faster growing emerging markets.”

A full copy of the PAC’s report can be found here.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .