Almost 60 per cent of small business owners consider South America their most important export market
With trade and investment minister Lord Price using the UK government’s first trade mission to Argentina in a decade to speak out in favour of a free-trade deal between the EU and Latin American economies, opportunities in the region for small business owners could be substantial.
The Argentinian economy boasts more than 43m consumers while the Colombian population is almost 50m. The EU has been negotiating a free-trade deal with the Mercosur trading bloc of South American economies since 2000.
if we are to improve our exports to Latin America, it’s vital that we not only build stronger trade ties with traditional trading partners like Colombia, but build on renewed relationships like that with Argentina, Lord Price said.
the growing economies of Latin America offer huge opportunity for British business and that’s why I want to see real progress on an EU-Mercosur free trade agreement, he added.
Research carried out by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in April 2014 revealed that one-in-ten British exporters are currently selling to Latin America. The region also made it into the top five destinations being considered as future exporting destinations by business leaders 15 per cent of those surveyed were considering it as a destination.
An additional study conducted by insurance group RSA in February found that almost 60 per cent of small business owners consider South America their most important export market. Some 80 per cent of respondents thought that access to markets outside of the EU is important for business growth though almost three-quarters said exporting beyond the EU’s borders was a struggle.
Chancellor George Osborne pledged to increase the total value of British exports to 1tn by 2020 in his 2012 Budget speech but the target was derided as pie in the sky and unachievable? by Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) committeechairman Iain Wright in 2015.
The latest export mission to Argentina follows hot on the heels of a two-day trip the trade and investment minister made to Colombia a country to which British businesses exported 20 per cent more in 2015 than during the previous 12 months.
It comes as a plans for a US-EU trade agreement known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)come under intense scrutiny. Details of the proposals were made public when Greenpeace Netherlands leaked a 248-page document in April.
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