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‘Trade Unlocked’ is a new national conference which was held in the NEC in Birmingham on June 20th and brought together members of the UK business community across all sectors and sizes of organisations to discuss and address the challenges of the current trading environment. Attending as a business academic, these are a few of my key take-aways about the current business landscape and particularly how this might inform our school’s curriculum and impact employability for our graduates.

The cross-party ‘UK Trade and Business Commission’ of MPs and industry leaders, recently published a report - which outlines 114 recommendations to improve UK trade policy. Key themes include aligning more with the EU where it is beneficial and a reformed visa system to address labour shortages. These themes were discussed during each of the conference presentations.

Organisers Naomi Smith and Jurgen Maier began the day by outlining the current trade challenges such as record inflations, barriers to trade, global instabilities and employment shortages to name a few, but also stressed that business-people are now demanding change.

Lord Bilimoria CBE, the founder of Cobra Beer spoke about the need to support more UK companies to export as the number of UK companies which currently export is just 10%. He also spoke about the need for the UK to encourage and support our international students into UK higher education institutes. Currently, international students are included in migration figures which Lord Bilimoria thinks is a mistake and should instead be classes as temporary migrants as they often return to their home countries and this situation currently causes inflated net migration figures.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade also spoke about the need to boost UK exports as well as wanting to rebuild the UK’s international trade relationship in order to unlock trading opportunities.

A breakout forum on the subject of ‘The UK’s labour mobility problem: how do we fix it?’ was led by Geoff Mackey, UK Head, Plastics Europe. There was much discussion around the need for more youth mobility schemes which should involve less bureaucracy. Dave Seaward, founder of 3p Innovation Ltd wants to be able to recruit more easily from international markets with again a desire for less administration which currently can takes months to complete. Another suggestion was for the UK to negotiate a reciprocal youth mobility visa scheme with the EU. The final remark was to encourage everyone to get more involved in politics and for businesspeople to ensure that businesses needs are heard by politicians.

The session on ‘Supply chains and logistics: managing the economy’s heartbeat’ discussed the recent disruption in the UK’s supply chains, and what policies need to be put in place to increase supply chain resilience. Chair of the session, Joe Mayes, a UK politics reporter with Bloomberg News noted that supply chain issues are leading to rising costs for producers and consumers and that these challenges are in a nearly constant volatile market, putting logistics under great strain.

Kate Jennings, Policy Director, Logistics UK noted that the biggest issues facing importing and exporting comes from uncertainty due to Brexit, ongoing post-Covid-19 factors and geo-political issues. Kate noted that supply chains have actually been very agile and gave the example of the recent food shortages which were relatively quickly responded to and resolved. Kate noted that the biggest issues now are the costs caused from ongoing uncertainty.

Declan Pang, Director of Public Affairs and Policy, Road Haulage Association stressed the need to get frictionless borders in order to reduce costs and time. Declan spoke of the huge uncertainty with border changes facing hauliers within Northern Ireland about how the new Windsor framework will actually operate in practice and explained that at the moment there is not enough clarity to how this will operate. Declan also agreed that uncertainty is driving up costs and that his industry needs time to plan but there are concerns that this is not being given. When asked about the pressure from decarbonisation goals and how this will affect costs in supply chains, Declan said it is the biggest issue currently facing the haulage sector as there is an ambitious target, but this is not backed up with ambitious plans.

Stephen Taylor, Managing Director, Winterwoods Farm said his biggest issue is a shortage of labour. Stephen said that despite transport costs increasing by 20%, the biggest issue is getting people to pick and pack on the farms. Stephen said that the UK government has no food strategy which is causing uncertainty and there is a feeling of opposing views from the government. The same people in government are requesting that the UK should produce their own food and be self-sufficient but at the same time the government is telling farms to increase labour costs, making the former goal impossible. Stephen would like the government to give more clarity and issue a coherent policy.

Fergus McReynolds, Director of EU and International Affairs, Make UK would like more risk identification to manage out volatility where possible and which will require companies looking much more deeply into their supply chains. Fergus would like to see closer relationships with the government to identify supply chain risks earlier to build resilience. For example, could the semi-conductor shortages have been identified earlier.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, CEO, New Economics Foundation, chaired the session on ‘People & Planet: how do we boost trade sustainably?’ which focussed on how UK companies can achieve the net zero targets and what policies the UK should adopt. Angela Francis, Director of Policy Solutions, WWF UK noted one challenge is that not all countries are adopting these targets, meaning it is not a level playing field and there is an urgent need a UK trade policy which, incredibly, there is not one at the minute. But the environment should be at the heart of this trade policy. Clare Jackson, Chief Executive, Hydrogen UK, noted that net zero target is a huge ambition which we all need to have a mind shift from looking at it as a cost and instead realise it can be a business opportunity. Claire questioned if we currently have a skills base that can deliver these net zero goals and a supply chain that can also deliver at net zero as these are two areas where currently there are challenges.

Shelley Brown, owner of a small business, The Good Life asked for businesses to be supported to adopt ambitious climate policies. Shelley reported that small businesses are not being consulted by government despite being the backbone of the UK economy. Shelly suggested that local councils could incentivise small businesses to make changes to help them toward achieving net zero. For example, solar, car sharing and green appliances with more encouragement and guidance being provided.

A keynote speech was delivered by David Lammy MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs who set out details of his plans to boost UK trade if the labour party win the next general election. Paul Dreschsler, Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce was also a keynote speaker who spoke about the ned to build school schemes so each child can realise their full potential and that education is the key to addressing the current skills gap. Paul also spoke about how trade can be a force for peace as can be seen historically because foreign trade requires building relationships.

Also, Paul spoke of the need for digitisation of trade so transactions could take minutes instead of months and estimated that transaction costs would decrease by around 80% making it cheaper, faster and that digitisation would also be more secure. Paul also spoke about the potential within the UK economy considering its world leading businesses, renowned financial services, its reputation for creativity and innovation in arts, culture and music which is all achieved from the diversity of the UK people. Paul stressed the need for a foreign relations policy and a trade policy which should be supported with strategy, concluding that the future of the UK is in all of our hands and especially the young people, that it is definitely in theirs.

Interestingly but not surprising was the common theme throughout the conference of the importance of education to improve the UK trade strategy. For example, a recommendation on the blueprint is that the UK should improve visa treatment for universities to ensure the UK has access to the best talent and expertise from around the world. Also, that the UK Government should re-join the Erasmus Programme, which provides opportunities for UK students and academics to study, work, and train in EU countries, and vice versa. Paul Dreschsler, Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce remarked that Universities are engines of economic growth possibilities, which of course I quite agree.

Whichever government party will be leading the country in the coming years, they will face complex and continually evolving trade challenges with uncertainty being the most pressing concern to address. However, from what I saw today, the good news is that the business community is keen to be involved, coming to the table with clear recommendations based on research, and a genuine sense of positivity to unlock the United Kingdom’s trade potential.