Small Business Exports

Gareth Snell Excerpts

Wednesday 20th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Jack Brereton]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for the points he has made, and I know the Department will be looking into these issues.

It is essential that we seek to open markets up, and the ambitious free trade agreements that the Department for International Trade will deliver are a key part of that. Indeed, what would be the point of delivering those free trade agreements if we did not have exporters eager to target and take advantage of them? I have read the Government’s export strategy, which is an excellent and comprehensive document—one that I am sure will be drawn on in the Minister’s reply, to the benefit of the House. It would be helpful for there to be an MP’s guide to signposting business to export support programmes, because that is certainly an issue that all colleagues will be keen to engage with at a constituency level.

[Gareth Snell (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate. Like him, I understand the nature of exports, particularly in respect of cities such as Stoke-on-Trent. On the point about MPs’ support, will he join me in congratulating the Staffordshire chamber of commerce on the work it does through its export surgeries, where it helps businesses with the import and export paperwork and walks them through, step by step, with a hand-holding exercise that allows them to open up their own domestic products to the global market?

[Jack Brereton]

I thank my parliamentary neighbour for making that point. He is absolutely right about Staffordshire chamber of commerce, which offers some incredible, fantastic services for local businesses in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire more widely. Many businesses would not be able to go without those services.

The strategy to which I just referred is subtitled “supporting and connecting businesses to grow on the world stage”. I am confident that that is the right ambition, and one challenge for us all in this House will be to ensure that our local businesses are connected to it. The Government promise that they will

“encourage and inspire businesses that can export but have not started or are just beginning; placing a particular focus on peer-to-peer learning…inform businesses by providing information, advice and practical assistance on exporting…connect UK businesses to overseas buyers, markets and each other, using our sector expertise and our networks in the UK and overseas”

and, finally,

“place finance at the heart of our offer”.

That is a positive statement to read, and it is in that spirit of positive engagement that I want to raise generally the remaining barriers to small-business exports.