Fox sets out ambition for UK to be export superpower
Trade secretary Liam Fox has set a target for exports to make up 35% of national output – though he failed to establish a date for achieving the goal.
In a speech, Fox said Britain had the opportunity to be a “21st century exporting superpower” to capitalise on trust in goods and services from the UK. Doing more business with China and other countries in Asia, as well as Africa, can help lift exports as a share of GDP from 30%, which is on a par with France Italy and Canada but behind Germany, Fox said.
“Given the strength of the UK economy, we should be reaching for the top of the pack – not lingering in the middle,” he said.
Increasing exports to 35% of GDP would take the UK near the top of the G7 major economies, Fox said. He promised to help companies secure finance, unlock opportunities and open markets overseas. But Fox set no date for achieving the 35% target.
Fox, who supports Brexit, said the government would work closely with industry, local government and devolved administrations and trade associations to help companies small and large export more. The government will set up a network of “export champion” businesses to help guide companies seeking to increase their exports.
But Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat leader and former business secretary, said the target was meaningless and had been "pulled out of thin air". "Relying on a mirage of trade deals with parties outside the EU is at best a gamble, at worst fantastical."
Fox said 90% of economic growth in the next 10 to 15 years was forecast to be outside the EU.
“Brexit is not the occasion to ‘pull up the drawbridge’ – but to embrace the opportunities that the changing pattern of global trade presents,” he said.
Stephen Roper, professor of enterprise at Warwick Business School, said: "Brexit uncertainty makes the situation more difficult for many exporting SMEs (small and medium enterprises). Around two-thirds of all exporting SMEs currently sell outside the EU, however, and many may see the development of a more global export footprint as an important mitigation strategy in the face of uncertainty about future European trade.”