Member Article

Brexit for breakfast: Influential trade policy expert gives advice to businesses

It was Brexit for breakfast for Lancashire businesses with the head of trade policy at a national organisation giving advice on the issue during a time of uncertainty.

The latest International Trade Club (ITC) Breakfast Meeting provided guests with an update on Brexit negotiations from Anastassia Beliakova, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce.

She said: “There are now just three months to finalise negotiations, which are meant to just cover exiting the EU, not our future trading relationship.

“However, we do know what the UK Government wants, as its White Paper on future trading terms talks about a free trade area for goods, with no border checks between the UK and the EU, as well as harmonisation of goods regulations, including for agriculture.”

Anastassia outlined that while the UK is far behind where it should be at this stage of the negotiations, the EU is also being inflexible.

As well as the UK’s current position, Certificates of Origin were discussed with the view being that these will simply be renamed and used in the same way as today for trade with non-EU countries.

The ITC meetings are run by the International Business team at the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by local accountants and business advisers, Cassons, part of the Baldwins Group.

The club aims to help importers and exporters develop their knowledge of current issues and share their experiences of trading internationally.

Helen Cowley, tax partner of Cassons, said: “It was great to see very high attendance again at the ITC breakfast meeting.

“The update from Anastassia was very helpful to all of the members and certainly provoked a lot of discussion.”

She added: “It’s a tremendous forum exchanging information and views relating to international trade.”

The talk on Brexit was followed by an insight into trading with Turkey and ensuring the safety of your employees in the world of business travel.

Daniel and Imren Waller of the School of Language and Global Studies at UCLAN provided advice on how best to build relationships and do business in Turkey.

Steve Hall, managing director of Mint Business Travel, explained how he had set up his business to support SMEs engage successfully overseas.

The ITC is the oldest in the country and membership benefits include quarterly meetings with access to specialist speakers and the opportunity to take part in the annual International Trade Awards.

To reserve your place at the next breakfast meeting on Thursday, 4th October 2018 with guest presenters from Manchester Airport Groups, Enterprise Europe Network and International Trade Club Award winners Pronar UK Ltd email Marie White on m.white@chamberelancs.co.uk.

Twitter: @elancschamber, @Cassons_acc and @baldwinsandco

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Harvey & Hugo .