Press Release: Small firms reveal trade deal wish list post Brexit

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) published on 21 March 2017 a report called Keep Trade Easy: what small firms want from Brexit.

The report discusses what trade deals United Kingdom smaller firms want to see struck first post Brexit. The top priority market for small firms was still the EU single market (63%). The report also revealed the importance of other markets, with nearly half (49%) of FSB members selecting the US as a priority market and one in three (29%) choosing Australia. Other key markets include China (28%) and Canada (23%).

The research revealed the potential impact of tariffs being introduced to UK-EU trade. One in four (27%) exporting small firms would be genuinely deterred from trading with the EU should any tariff – no matter how low – be introduced. Should the UK find itself trading with the EU under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules alone, exporters would face the EU’s most-favoured-nation tariffs.

One in three small business exporters say they would be deterred from trading with the EU if a tariff rate between two and four per cent (the range within which the EU’s average applied tariff tends to have fallen over the past few years) was introduced. Crucially, small business exporters and importers also find non-tariff barriers (such as administrative burdens in dealing with customs) to be as equally important as tariffs.

The new research also discovered that over half (58%) of smaller firms find the EU single market easier to trade with than non-EU markets (6% find it harder to trade with the EU single market). Nearly half (45%) of current exporters and over half (53%) of current importers find trading with the EU single market cheaper than trading with non-EU markets. While only nine and eight per cent, respectively, find it more expensive.

• Primary Source

ESO: In Focus: Brexit - The United Kingdom and the European Union http://www.europeansources.info/record/brexit-the-united-kingdom-and-the-european-union/

FSB: Press Releases: Brexit http://www.fsb.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/?BusinessIssueId=bfdbc2bc-4fa8-6562-a286-ff0000dc48fe

FSB: Keep trade easy: What small firms want from Brexit (March 2017) http://www.fsb.org.uk/docs/default-source/fsb-org-uk/keep-trade-easy_-what-small-firms-want-from-brexit-21-march-2017.pdf

FSB: What small firms want from Brexit. A preview of FSB's Brexit Research Series (January 2017) http://www.fsb.org.uk/docs/default-source/fsb-org-uk/fsb-brexit-interim-survey-exec-summary-jan-25-2017.pdf

---