New figures have revealed that last year Britain sold £834million of exports to the rest of the world.
It means that Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch’s target of £1trillion of exports by 2030 should be achieved well ahead of the target date and could be done as early as this year.
The latest success of Brexit Britain has been revealed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and reflects how Britain’s trade deals with Australia, New Zealand and the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership group of 11 nations is coming into fluition.
But a leading trade expert Marco Forgione, Director General of the Institute of Export and International Trade (IoE&IT), has said a new digital borders system coming into place in January will open up both imports and exports even more providing “huge opportunities to business”.
Exports Minister Malcolm Offord has praised the UK’s “world-class” exporters.
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The 2022 figure was a record year for the UK’s services exports in particular as they topped £400billion for the first time, and new ONS data estimates they were worth £411billion in total last year – £10 billion higher than the original estimation of £401billion.
Lord Offord said: “This is fantastic news and shows our world-class exporting businesses are doing even better than first thought and selling more of the goods and services to the world.
“The UK is a services superpower, hitting over £400billion in exports for the first time last year, but we want to see even more businesses exporting, so we can hit our ambitious target of £1trillion of exports a year by 2030.
“We’re backing British business by knocking down trade barriers, signing new trade deals, giving expert advice via our Export Support Service and funding through UK Export Finance – our award-winning export credit agency.”
Mr Forgione told Express.co.uk that Brexit has opened up new opportunities for the UK.
He said: “It’s positive to see improvements across a range of exports within both trade in goods and services.
“The Institute of Export & International Trade’s recent report ‘Global horizons: realising the services exports potential of UK nations and regions’ demonstrates why we are a services powerhouse.
“It’s vital that we maintain our global advantage as an exporter of services and one of the key recommendations of our report was creating regional sector specialisations – which, if implemented, will improve regional outputs.
“We have a clear pathway to continue this success and by focusing on our nations and regions we can work together with businesses to reap the benefits of entering new markets.”
The IoE&IT report has highlighted the benefits of the new Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) which will be the world’s most advanced digital border.
BTOM will begin to be rolled out at the start of January after a delay but has been the target of Rejoiners complaining that it will increase costs of products from the EU.
However, Mr Forgione points out that it will open up import and export opportunities to the UK from all over the world leading to greater competition and a potential reduction in prices.
He said that the improvements on imports will make the UK supply chain one of the most robust in the world and in turn boost exports further.
Mr Forgione highlighted a pilot scheme of the whole system which was carried out with tea, coffee and cut flowers from Kenya.
He said: “This went through the haulage company, the wholesaler, the port, the shipping company, the receiving company in the UK, all of this was done digitally.
“We had integration into the Kenya single trade window and then we complied with the UK regulatory and customs requirements.
“The speed of the of the transit of the goods increased by over 35 percent and profitability increased by over 40 percent.
“It enabled UK authorities to de-risk and pre-clear the product there because they got 14 days notice whereas currently under the existing system, you’d get notice of a shipment maximum 48 hours.
“So this move to digital which the government is spearheading is really fundamental to creating a supply chain that works in the best interest of the consumer.”
