{"id":91916,"date":"2018-05-15T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=158e39ea6f1f1d181d977f6976f809e7"},"modified":"2018-05-21T10:26:11","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T10:26:11","slug":"speech-uk-us-business-links-at-the-heart-of-trade-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=91916","title":{"rendered":"Speech: UK-US business links at the heart of trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated:<\/em> Transcript of speech added.<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s a long time since I left America. I was born in Rochester, in upstate New York, and I spent my first 8 years in the US, in New York and California; and then for most of the \u201890s I went back to work there, working on Wall Street, but covering markets and clients across America.<\/p>\n

But then New York, and America: they never really leave you, do they?<\/p>\n

Those of us lucky enough to live there always remember the dynamism and endless optimism you get \u2013 it\u2019s easy to be cynical, until you walk through the cities which that optimism built.<\/p>\n

And those, like me, who\u2019ve worked and lived in several countries know there are few closer together than our 2.<\/p>\n

Somehow, people always seem to undervalue the cultural factor in trade.<\/p>\n

We spend our time talking about the technicalities of tariff schedules and the intricacies of international standards \u2013 but being able to speak the other person\u2019s language is pretty important when you\u2019re sealing a deal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious when you think about it.<\/p>\n

Well if you\u2019re an American business looking to trade abroad – there\u2019s no other country you can trade with that\u2019s got more native English speakers. And it\u2019s the same the other way around.<\/p>\n

But our links go far beyond language.<\/p>\n

We have the same business culture \u2013 the French don\u2019t even distinguish it, they just refer to it as \u2018capitalisme anglo-saxon\u2019.<\/p>\n

Last week I got talking to someone who\u2019d worked in finance, in a number of different countries.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cthe thing about the British and Americans is you\u2019re both constantly worrying about losing competitiveness. But you don\u2019t get it – it\u2019s just so easy to do business here\u201d.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we\u2019re the 2 countries ranked sixth and seventh for ease of doing business in the entire world; why we\u2019re the world\u2019s first and second-largest service exporters; and why every single year, every single one of the 10 most reputed universities are in either the UK or the US.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the work British-American business does to forge those links is so important: so a big thank you, on behalf of the government, for everything you do.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why this excellent publication is so important. Yes, America is our largest export market: almost twice the size of Germany.<\/p>\n

Yes, we\u2019ve got over half a trillion pounds invested in each other\u2019s economies; and yes, that\u2019s huge.<\/p>\n

But the statistics don\u2019t matter in and of themselves. It\u2019s what they mean.<\/p>\n

That half trillion, for example: that means there\u2019s huge numbers of Brits with jobs at American firms; and as the report states over a million Americans who have jobs because of British investment.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s the individual examples, like the ones we\u2019ve got here, that matter \u2013 the individual exemplars that we\u2019re here to celebrate.<\/p>\n

Let me pick some out. How about the 100 US service veterans who\u2019ve got jobs at Britain\u2019s Jaguar LandRover, as part of a dedicated scheme? Or the 1,000 US employees of architects Arup \u2013 skilled jobs from a respected company.<\/p>\n

And those examples: they\u2019re just the tip of the iceberg, a drop in the ocean, compared to the value of UK-US trade for our jobs and our businesses.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s 14,000 UK companies with US subsidiaries.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen some of them in my travels across the US I have done in this ministerial job, way beyond New York and the Beltway: to Chicago, LA, San Diego, Denver, Ft. Worth, Austin, Seattle and Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost as if I heard Horace Greeley when he said: \u201cgo West, and grow up with the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

So the government wants to secure and enhance your ability to trade with America.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019re taking steps right now to do that.<\/p>\n

UK Export Finance<\/a> can now provide up to \u00a34 billion of support for the American market.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve set up a Trade and Investment Working Group<\/a>, to boost commercial links, before we leave the EU. We\u2019ve already made good progress \u2013 for example, we\u2019ve agreed steps to protect small businesses\u2019 intellectual property.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019re laying the ground for a new, comprehensive trade agreement with the US \u2013 one of the great opportunities beyond the EU Customs Union.<\/p>\n

So, ladies and gentlemen, the American opportunity is one we\u2019re well placed to seize. Few economies are more complementary. Few allies are closer.<\/p>\n

That\u2019ll be strengthened when the President visits here in July.<\/p>\n

To quote Steven Mnuchin, the US Treasury Secretary: \u201cAs soon as the UK is ready we will be prepared to negotiate an attractive trade deal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Well – we will be ready. And from March 2019 we can negotiate, sign and ratify trade agreements.<\/p>\n

But first, we need your help. We can\u2019t let people take for granted the benefits of free trade or our Anglo-American friendship. It\u2019s too important for that.<\/p>\n

This is a fantastic opportunity.<\/p>\n

Let us work together to make it a reality!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speech delivered by Minister of State for Trade Policy Greg Hands to UK and US members of the British American Business group in London, 15 May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92115,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91916\/revisions\/92115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}