Trade White Paper and UK Economy

As the world recovers from global economic crisis, trade and investment has become a central thing to regenerate strong and stable economy of the UK as well as in the rest of Europe. The British government is striding hard not only to ensure full economic recovery but also to become the world’s leading economy. In order to do so, the UK government has set out some new rules and policies which are expected to enhance the Britain’s trade exposure. This new policy is called Trade White Paper, the main focus of which is to enhance the support of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Trade White Paper proposes to give extra support to exporters, new trade finance and insurance products. The policy will be launched to ensure that the UK wholesale suppliers, exporters, manufacturers and wholesalers compete well against their competitors, not just in their local markets but also in overseas markets. The proposal also advocates that regulatory environment should be improved with the European partners while reducing accounting and audit requirements. So, according to the proposal hailed by the Prime Minister that the British Government’s trade policy must act on a certain number of levels which are discussed below.

• Best domestic environment must be created in order to support the competitive business and make Britain an attractive place for foreign investment. It is also important to create business opportunities in the UK wholesale market for developing countries, while removing all kinds of hurdles and barriers from the path of effective import and export. Maintaining good working relations with EU, WTO and G20 in order to foster trade and investment and to overcome specific market challenges. Also promotion of low carbon transition and resource efficiency for technological innovation has been proposed for the betterment of the UK economy.

• Special attention to be paid on trade with foreign countries like securing significant contracts with the US in public private-partnerships and high speed rail transits. Initiate negotiations on a comprehensive EU-Japan free-trade agreement while completing the EU-Canada economic and trade agreement during 2011. Also orders of ensuring free-trade agreement with ASEAN countries are given.

• Work closely on trade and investment with countries like Singapore, Switzerland, Australia, Brazil and New Zealand while also supporting the UK wholesale trade within these countries. Encourage stronger partnership with Israeli companies to excel in high technology and science. Give full support to the delivery of agreed bilateral trade targets with India, China, Turkey and South Africa. As China is the biggest contributor of the world’s economy so encouraging greater Chinese investment in the UK and urging China to join Global Procurement Agreement can be a good step towards the stabilization of UK economy.

• Build opportunities like London and Rio Olympic and Paralympics for the year 2012 and 2016. Generate aids for Conflict-affected, war-torn and fragile states. Last but not least, structuring a general law to protect intellectual property rights of business entrepreneurs across the world was also proposed.

According to the UK government this Trade White Paper policy will surely give a boost to the UK economy in the short term as well as in the long term. More precise implementations will be devised in the UK’s 2011 budget.

                  Tell us in comment section is it going to happen? What do you think?