eSignature Licitness for Export in United Kingdom

How to eSign a document: eSignature licitness for Export in United Kingdom

foreign [Music] welcome to trade Finance Talks TV hi welcome uh thank you very much thank you pleasure and here we are at uh UK international trade week uh can you give a bit of an introduction who are you where are you from and what do you do okay um so Paul McComb director of UK exports at the department for international trade um I've been responsible uh predominantly for the Department strategy on sporting exports increasing exports um some practical things that we're doing particularly with with Europe and the sort of adaption of the TCA amongst many other things which I'm sure we're going to get onto yeah absolutely and and you know the perfect person I've been I've been meaning to uh meaning to talk to because I guess you know if we take a bit of a step back and look at right now for UK trade and exports we're seeing a really difficult trading environment macro macroeconomics geopolitical context we have the Russia the Russia Ukraine war feed shortages record record inflation levels how are these events currently impacting UK exports yeah I mean it's it's if you reflect back on sort of events when you think in this country we've adapted to a new trading relationship with Europe as you said the pandemic which the whole globe has had to deal with the inflationary pressures Ukraine and The Invasion by Russia I mean the list is pretty phenomenal I mean in very simplistic terms the risk has just gone like up um and I'm you know from my engagement with businesses um I mean the numbers are one thing but what business is like is certainty and they like to understand and pricing you know the sort of uncertainty so that it can still get on do business make things happen I think my sense is that there are some sort of prevailing challenges that companies have always had some of that could be around the cost of it entering a market the cost of continuing and Market could be about knowledge networks building trusting relations there's lots of stuff which is enduring I think the sense more and more recently is how they get a reliable assessment of the risk and how they then sort of deal with that which obviously trade Finance is a as a part of this discussion today but it how they manage those risks and a big part of what we we do is is really see well work in government help in that space But I think that's that's the big the biggie for me in terms of managing risk thanks Paul and I guess let's let's get straight into the into the numbers and and per the strategy that um dit published published last year I guess UK is really looking to Pivot its new trading relationship and actually establishing more of a connection with Asian market are you actually seeing a change in the numbers in terms of our real trading figures with our Asian Partners so I think in in sort of general terms I mean a lot of the deals as you know that we have been doing or pursuing are yet to fully sort of bite in a practical sense um I think my sense is that um securing a better trading environment this is what one of the things we've learned during the adjustment to the new trading relationship with Europe securing a better trading environment is absolutely where government should be occupying itself but making it sort of more straightforward then there is a really practical element to how businesses sort of take advantage of that so for example when you do a deal on goods and you secure tariff free access for some companies that means they've got to engage with things like rules of origin and satisfying the requirements of that in order to take advantage of those those sort of tariff deals so um so there's a very practical side to that sort of sort of big picture if I was sort of stepping back and saying how does it look and feel um interestingly the numbers if you just look at pure numbers and people will say yeah but inflation non-monetrical there's all sorts of other numbers in it you know the latest statistics that we published suggested something like 728 billion of exports now that's from an average of around 640 billion between sort of 2016 to pre-covered 20. so that's quite a big number now some of that is for sure uh inflationary but when you strip those effects out there's still something of the order of 40 to 50 billion of increase so the numbers are going in the right direction um and we are seeing sort of increases on both EU non-eu um in in that in that regard the the the the the the the sort of strategy of getting into those Asian markets getting those Traders is as much as anything to rekindle relationships that you know we've had for for many years a lot of those countries are commonwealth countries that we've done deal with as well and um I think we're at the start of what could be an even bigger boost if companies feel confident to follow through on those trade deals um so I think I think from my perspective at the moment it's still work in progress It's not there yet no one's sort of declaring Victory uh in in all of this are we doing the right things I think we are we're certainly doing the things you would expect government to do get in there I mean what's the alternative sit on your hands and Sort of hope well we're not doing that um so so I I think work in progress is the way I would describe it and more to do yeah absolutely and I guess looking at those those figures that that potential 50 billion um increase if you strip out of inflation and versus the the pre-pandemic levels I guess the objective is always to increase those numbers even more if you look at the barriers that corporates and smesa facing when it comes to exporting to overseas markets can you walk us through the key export barriers and also then talk about what government can do to intervene and I guess make trade easier yeah I mean there are there are four persistent barriers and we survey this every year and the same sort of message comes back um and some of these are more will be felt more by smes and it's not that they're not felt by the big corporates but you know there's a general sense that they will have a dedicated Department that can get its head around what what it needs to do the first one is um cost and it's just a practical cost of the paperwork or the systems you need to put in place in order to sell your goods overseas or in some cases secure your license if it's in a Services trade and then it's things like shipping costs um duties etc etc and you can see how trade deals can help attack some of that so cost is number number one I think secondly is knowledge um and and that can be about sometimes companies full fail when they're trying to trade on the fly yeah they learn by doing so they haven't done a huge amount of research to realize that to get product X through customs in country why Market why you need certain things um and then they fall foul of those those things so knowledge is a is a sort of second barrier third and this uh this this is real I mean I always say trade is a contact sport and what I mean by that is you sort of you you feel trust when you meet people and if you think of selling to another Market what you're trying to do is build up trust uh with the buyers um so you know having a trusted by getting the right Network knowing you can take that email inquiry or that phone call or whatever it is that prompted your interest and follow through and take you know fulfill on that so I think networks trusted relationships the third area then the fourth area can sometimes be actually the investment they need to do domestically to build a capacity to fulfill I spent four years out in China based in Hong Kong and actually the scale of that market is huge that the purchasing power is huge and some of the companies would come through with you know a capacity to do I don't know palette of whatever the thing was a month and meet buyers who'd say let's start with a container a month and then we'll go to a decent order and they'd just be overwhelmed but of course that's the big opportunity but raising the finance taking the decision to invest in your own capacity to fulfill so they seem to be the four persistent sort of barriers and that comes through year after year in the sort of surveys that we do the export strategy which you mentioned before we published it November 2021 unlike dare I say lots of government strategies it was I thought very grounded very practical and it talked about practical things we would do to help deal with those specifics so for example they take knowledge we launched an export Academy um which basically does everything from you know how do you export through to I'm working in Ai and I'm interested in getting into you know particular markets and having sessions on sector-specific stuff Market specific stuff so your end you're getting a sense of if you're going to enter into this Market be aware great opportunities might not get paid very quickly or this is the way they like to do business so you're getting deep Insight through that but the beauty of the academy is people can register they can learn they can log on before they start spending serious cash um so there's things like that when it comes to networks we've got 1600 people in 108 countries um we can for the right companies get introductions and and the thing is being the British government over in another foreign market which you don't know terribly well just build your confidence a bit so if we introduce you to someone who's a buyer the chances are you know it's all going to be good now we don't necessarily do complete due diligence on absolutely everyone see at the end of the day a business still has to make their own decision but you know the chances are we're introducing you to companies or organizations we've dealt with for decades and we know and they're trusted so these measures are all geared around um just helping in in that space and actually trade Finance I said at the start of this you know the big thing that's everyone's facing is increased risk trade finals can be a huge enabler in the sense of it's just taking some of that risk on in order for you to carry on and feel confident in your trade and if it does go wrong we hope not but if it does trade Finance is there to sort of help thanks Paul say so just to summarize those those four points really cost knowledge trust and an investment or finance and I'll talk about the final piece now because I guess that's the reason why trade Finance Global UK export finance and the department for international trade very recently launched the guide to trade and Export finance and and I guess there are a number of different challenges but but trade and access to trade finance and Export finances is really critical and and in a world where interest rates therefore lending rates or boring rates have have gone up as well as an understanding of the complexities of trade Finance which is a very paper-based paper-heavy business has made the environment for corporates and smes to access trade Finance I mean can you talk through some of the reasons why trade Finance really is a a barrier to entry for corporates and smes and and also what government can do to help bring both public actors like export Credit Agencies and private actors like Banks together to help finance that Gap and I'm sure you know there is a 1.7 trillion US dollar global trade Finance Gap and SME suffered the most out of those yeah I mean and this feels like it's been a Perpetual challenge it's you know people even being aware that such a thing exists so promoting it the work you've done on the guide those sorts of things are really important because it it is quite interesting if you think about it the the whole if you if you stripped back the process of global trade it's pretty archaic um lots of paper lots of sort of trust points which are clearly also failure points along the way and um everyone comes along to try and fix a bit of the sort of problem and and I think the challenge on on trade Finance is because it's actually people being aware people being able to really understand how best to utilize that and I know with UK export Finance they've done a lot to just try and promote not just the product but then by showing people who got something for what purpose so that they can see themselves so the case studies that go on together UK actually quite important as well because people need to see themselves to say oh I could I could sort of you know get that facility and as you say you know what's not to want we're ensuring the buyer against buying from you I mean it sounds almost unbelievable as a as a scheme but you know when I when I again when I was in China and I would explain this not that they necessarily wanted uh the cover but you know those it gets them going and gets them thinking actually this is a reason to buy British and that's one of the big reasons why we put that in place the general export facility to help people who have to invest that point around investing in your business to fulfill you know again uh opportunities there so I think I mean it slightly moves on to what we've seen in recent years which is you know do you carry on trying to sell all these different component bits of support in a very disjointed largely archaic sort of global trading system which seems to sort of work I I always consider it a minor miracle every day that everything just texts particularly when you bring Logistics into that or you start to look at uh you know the work that some of these big platforms are doing where they sort of you know selling platforms I'm thinking of the alibabas the Amazons of the world who've just lifted the I mean of course there's a cost to everything but they've lifted the the grunt off your average Trader and said sell it on here and I'll take care of that and uh you know we'll operate from there so so I think for me um it will be in a never-ending cycle of trying to keep promote and keep people aware that there is all this support available but if I was a business wouldn't I just want it to be simple you know in this world where we can do everything on our phones why are we not there sort of sort of yet so I think there's big Ambitions for that and when I again if I sort of reflect on my X experience in in China if you're opening a store you typically opened it on you know WeChat you wouldn't think of setting a website up and you traded through systems like that it was a very different um sort of mindset albeit a lot of that only really operates within in the mainland thanks Paul see just to summarize the guide really includes an overview of some of the the products available the most common risks where where to go for help and also the current trade Finance landscape a lot A lot's really changed in in the past few years specifically with regards to the digitalization of trade so so the guide really really covers that it also has a an extensive glossary because actually some of the terminology used in trade and Export finances is quite complicated so actually by dispelling some of those complicated terms um it can help corporates and smes looking to start or continue on their trading journey I guess the most important part is really looking at some of the processes involves so we've included a list of step-by-step list of processes involved in securing trade Finance as well as how acquiring trade Finance can help both from a public and and from a private perspective so that there are lots of good tips and tricks and in this guide and it's available to download on on our on our website .tradefinance global.com forward slash export finance and and it really shows how the department for international trade UK export finance and trade Finance Global can support smes and corporates throughout the trade Finance process so I guess Paul coming coming back to some of the points we discussed earlier when it comes to when it comes to UK exporters can you give smes some tips and really tangible tips on on on how they can navigate This truly complicated landscape and actually turn this into a bit of an opportunity so we um and I'll reflect a little bit on the experience of smes adjusting uh to our new trading relationship with EU as an example I'll explain what we've done there so government did huge amount of campaigning get ready for brexit you know all that sort of stuff um pages and pages of guidance beautifully written on gov UK um actually lots of different sort of helpline type facilities very specific um when when we looked at the sum total of that I think it ended up at around 10 000 pages of guidance and 34 helplines so that in itself is is almost too much for people and I think what we learned a lot talking to smes is they don't want to become experts at exporting they just want to fulfill an order make a sale do a deal um that you know that can grow and they'd some some go further so we launched in October last year the export support service a very very simple to simple terms we just said if you're stuck ring these ring this number and what we've done over the last year is we'll learn a huge amount of what are the sort of questions that people get stuck on so in July this year we launched a digital service which helps people to know precisely what it is that they need to to do will you just go in there and you type in the goods you're selling you find the commodity code you click the country you're selling to and it goes these are the four things you need to do or here's the one thing you need to do really really simple if you're still stuck on the back of that you can request a call with one of our trade experts they'll call you back they'll talk through what your issues are they'll help you through that now we that service was largely focused on Europe it expanded to Russia's Ukraine because there's a lot going on and we thought we just got to insert ourselves into this so that we can help businesses navigate that we expanded to cover the whole of Eastern Europe and Central Asia on the 10th of October we'll be expanding that even further to cover the whole world by March 23. and our simple message is if your stuff go there first the good thing about where we're heading with this service because you do learn a lot as you listen to what people are sort of dealing with there's a few thoughts so one will help you with the the specific that you're dealing with and if we don't know the answer we'll find someone who does which is really quite important I think for certain businesses where we see hang on this is us I mean we get calls from everything who you know I want to sell 100 quids worth of goods through to I've got a two million pound order and I'm waiting for this when you see those particularly as people get into more sizable trades then increasingly we'll be routing those to our trade advisors into equally export finance and starting to to say for certain companies there's a bigger Suite of products here that you should tap into and the way to think about this is a kind of increasingly it'll be a sort of primary point of entry into the government offer and some of that might bounce out I mean we talked to partner business groups who are very well placed so some of the trade bodies Etc will set talk to these guys they can help you or refer to the guide that is available that sort of thing so so that's probably the biggest simplest thing that we're offering if I was to sort of list all the individual things we've got that would probably be a turn off businesses but it's a lot easier for us to sort of sell to people the idea of come here if you want to start your journey and we can get you into the academy you start learning if you're already trading let's set you up with trade advisors let's get you talking to people in country because you know how do you how do you find the guy to speak to in Kazakhstan you know um probably really difficult so we've got those routes we've got those connections thanks Paul I mean it's really interesting from from an SME perspective because they don't necessarily want to learn all the nuances of trade export Finance Etc they want to fulfill orders so I think it's a really tangible and very important sign pasting helpline and of course there's lots of evidence to suggest that smes and and businesses who export are likely to be more Innovative they'll be more competitive they'll have happier employees they'll be more profitable so there are lots of um lots of advantages of of the UK companies who actually export I guess to taking a bit of a step back and and you know to my original first question during these current very very challenging times for for UK PLC um why is now the time to consider exporting um so I mean we always think now and now could be tomorrow it could be yesterday but um I guess once and this is It's The Experience of companies who decide to export that keep us continually motivated to promote this I mean we know I mean if we do do the numbers you know exporting companies are they pay more the 21 more productive they actually cover about a quarter of the working population in the UK businesses who export and we we when we see the success of a company who decides not just to serve the domestic market and start to grow exponentially and you'd be amazed the demand for British goods is incredibly strong so and services and I suppose you know we look at this and think gosh what a wasted opportunity if you're not exporting I'd go lots of business roundtables and there'll be people there who are you know um export Champions who are selling uh you get on get them to the ladder get moving and then other businessmen who are like oh it's it's expensive how do I know I don't want to spend a lot of money and then find it and get the order and it's just building that confidence and it goes back to this sort of de-risking as as well but the reason the reason now is important is because there is massive growth potential particularly in the markets that we are pursuing trade agreements with and trading relationship in addition to our you know our strong trading relationship with the EU with the US so there's massive opportunity and there is going to be increasing middle classes with demand for sort of British goods and services and so we can see it I mean and you can see the predicted growth plenty of reports out there and if businesses don't jump in sort of early and gets get into that get into the game it just feels a sense of we might be missing something that we shouldn't and I can tell you from again my time out in in Asia in particular there is a really strong connection with with Britain with what Britain's got to offer and there's still a lot of trust in Britain and and sort of building on that can only be good for business thank you very much Paul and I definitely you can care with what you're saying just get out there and see see the opportunities talk talk to other people and and really look at those those opportunities and and that there are endless opportunities for for companies so thank you very much and and just a reminder to our audience at trade week um you can download the guide at true Advanced global.com forward slash export hyphen finance and and there are also lots of other links to the sign posting services that department for international trade and UK export Finance offer thank you very much for joining us on trade Finance Source TV thank you very much