British exports - what does the government do to help?

Following on from Jim’s blog on Wednesday about exports (Exporting – no thanks – we’re British, there have been some interesting reports in the last couple of weeks emphasising the ways in which government tries to encourage exports, which could be the source of some investigation work for students around the the theme of The Relationship between Businesses and the Political Environment, and political decisions affecting trade and access to markets.

First, on Wednesday the Foreign and Commonwealth Office published the government’s strategy for trade and investment to drive global economic growth. This opens by saying that included in the strategy are a range of actions to help secure a strong, sustainable and open economy that benefits business both domestically and internationally. The three areas of focus are
• Strengthening the multilateral trading system,
• Enabling developing countries to benefit from trade and investment, and
• Maximising and realising the opportunities for UK businesses to trade and invest
The statement issued by the FCO expands on each of these, and adds a video from the press launch as well as supporting quotes from the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Trade and Investment Minister, all of which could be used to underline the importance of government support for trade initiatives as part of the drive towards economic recovery. Perhaps the second bullet point here, about working to find benefits for developing countries, could provide some background for “the extent to which governments should influence Corporate Social Responsibility”?

To see what practical help is available for UK businesses,if you can afford to devote a lesson to this you could start with this BBC report which looks at why “Small firms are unnecessarily missing out on exports”. To see what is being done to help, go to the UKTI website. I would suggest use of these two pages:
• Exports and the Balance of Trade
• Inward Investment and the Capital Account
Each explains how the department helps and supports businesses, either those that want to export, or those that want to invest in the UK and to set up business here – and each has links to case studies that can be used to add examples that could be used to add to students’ stock of examples to draw on in BUSS4 essays.