Planning for Export after the Pandemic

Jonathan Reuvid

• Publisher: University of Buckingham Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781800318564
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: International Business
• Index: Business

While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the global economy to a standstill and a deep recession is more than likely, businesses in the UK will nevertheless need to be sure they are ready for exporting in a post-Brexit trade environment once the crisis is over. This downloaded text and reports provide advice on key strategic priorities, documentation, practices and regulations, as well as crucial trade data on key countries.

For a more in-depth and comprehensive guide to global trade – including practical insight into areas such as patents, R&D, public funding and trademarks – readers may wish to purchase the more extensive companion publication, Global Innovation.

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1

SURVEYING THE SCENE

As of April 2020, there is no certainty when the current coronavirus  

pandemic will end, nor of how deep the global recession into which we  

are plunged will be. For exporters and those planning to export there  

are three key questions:

1. When markets revive and export conditions approach normal,  

what distortions to the balance of trade will there be.

2. Will the changes be permanent or will trade revert to its 2019  

pattern.

3. For UK exporters and importers what will happen to the process  

of post-Brexit negotiations.

That there will be short-term effects on the relative and absolute  

values of import demand and export capability for the product  

groups of individual economies is certain. Established suppliers and  

customers will be affected, some permanently where supply chains and  

manufacturing locations are adjusted or downgraded.

Whether or not there will be long-term changes in the balance of  

international trade between Europe, America, China and other Asian  

economies and regions is doubtful. The major shift in the tectonic  

plates of the global economy generated from the 1980s by the rise  

of China as an economic powerhouse and accelerated through the  

following decades by the emergence of other Asian tigers is unlikely to  

be reversed. Indeed, the resilience of these newer markets may well be  

stronger than that of their European and North American competitors.  

As to the trade discussions with the EU, timing constraints suggest  

that it will prove impossible to strike a meaningful agreement by the  

end of June when the UK government is required to declare whether  

Introduction

6

or not it wishes to continue the negotiations. They are not a hot topic  

in the media for the time-being and it would seem logical that, like the  

Tokyo Olympics, the cut-off date of January 2021 could be extended.  

However, it is possible that the timetable will remain intact and that  

the UK will be trading with the EU on WTO terms from the New Year  

onwards. For those who are uncertain what that would mean Chapter  

3 summarises WTO rules and how they are operated.¹

1 Readers wishing to prepare themselves as exporters and the role of  

innovation in penetrating new markets are referred to Global Innovation  

to published by University of Buckingham Press in April 2020 (Print  

ISBN 9781787198609).

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2

PRIORITY MARKETS – RESEARCH
AND STRATEGY

FOCUS FOR UK EXPORTERS

In the absence of a hard Brexit the ultimate tariff terms that will

apply to trade between the UK and the EU, as with other countries or

customs unions further afield, should not be the de...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1 Surveying the Scene
• 2 Priority Markets – Research and Strategy
• 3 WTO Rules and UK Trade Post-Brexit
• Appendix