What is the evidence for the impacts of the UK’s free trade agreements on trade (goods and services) and on employment levels and job quality by sector, region and worker type?
Background
Businesses must be equipped to seize opportunities and navigate challenges in global trade and investment, supporting DBT’s ambition to reset trade relations and champion UK exports. In this changing landscape, we want to know how UK businesses are responding to changes and improvements in market access, breaking down results by sector, business demographic, and type of barrier to overcome. The impacts of geopolitical risks and conflicts may impact, positively or negatively, businesses’ ability to trade. Therefore, being able to map and track configuration of trade routes and formulation of investment strategies will be crucial to continual success.
The topics in this theme relate to enabling businesses to trade effectively and to attract the most competitive foreign investment, creating long-term partnerships that will help UK businesses to thrive. We have included questions on understanding and improving trade with the EU, mechanisms for optimal export and import, how to build effective and resilient free trade agreements, and how to maximise the outputs through the Office for Investment.
Delivering resilient growth through foreign trade and investment requires:
- an understanding of current and future opportunities, challenges, enablers and barriers
- identifying the highest potential markets, sectors and partnerships for success
- building and negotiating free trade agreements that boost growth and protect jobs
- providing support to businesses in the form of access to finance, unifying export support services, and harnessing digitisation
- maximising and promoting the strengths of the Office for Investment, particularly in the area of foreign direct investment
Next steps
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