Chamber News

2013 sees the Norfolk Chamber launch its campaign to ‘Unlock the Potential of Norfolk’s Young People’ .

Caroline Williams CEO Norfolk Chamber of Commerce said:

“I have yet to come across a business that is not willing to be supportive in helping our young people to understand the world of work. However, with increasing economic pressures on the business community the Norfolk Chamber felt it important that the topic of young people and unlocking their potential stays in the forefront of everyone’s mind.

The idea of our theme is to find a variety of ways to profile the employment opportunities available within our businesses for our young people and to get the business community and young people to get to know each other better. It is essential that our young people do have a voice and we listen to them”

At all of the Norfolk Chamber’s 70+ events throughout 2013 young people will be invited to participate. Businesses are invited to bring their apprentices to networking events at a special rate, for them to see the business community in action and to participate in the discussions. At the Chamber’s annual MPs event this February the topic will be all about how the business community can help influence the support for our young people, and a number of them will be invited to take part in the round table discussions.

Norfolk Chamber members will be working with schools across Norfolk to help them to identify career opportunities available across all sectors. Young people form a crucial part of the business supply chain now and in the future.

Apprenticeships are increasingly being recognised as a tangible way for businesses to employ young people with the advantage of support from a training provider. The Norfolk Chamber has challenged its members to collectively employ 213 apprentices in 2013 and to share with others what worked and what did not work, in order to encourage more businesses to employ apprentices and get more young people employed.

Caroline Williams continued: ” Although only a small business ourselves, we employ two apprentices and although to start with additional resources is needed to get them up to speed, their enthusiasm and new ideas definitely makes up for it . Growing your own workforce has many advantages.

“We are very excited about this year’s theme as a greater involvement of young people in Norfolk’s business community can only make us all more successful”

A Chamber-led delegation will be travelling to Westminster on Wednesday 6 February to meet with the Energy Minister, John Hayes. They will be highlighting to the Minster the business case and the opportunities available in Norfolk and Suffolk from the offshore renewable industry and seeking clarification on key issues affecting Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

The delegation will include business members from Norfolk and Suffolk Chambers, the local MPs, Brandon Lewis, MP for Great Yarmouth and Peter Alldous, MP for Waveney and representatives from NSEA, EEEGR, Orbis Energy and the New Anglia LEP.

John Morse, President of Great Yarmouth Chamber Council, who will be attending on behalf of the Norfolk Chamber, said: “The Great Yarmouth Chamber Council during one of their regular meetings with Brandon Lewis MP identified key issues affecting local companies which they wanted to put directly to the Minister. We are delighted to have been invited to meet John Hayes and look forward to discussing effective ways to maximize Great Yarmouth’s potential to support the burgeoning offshore renewables industry.”

Great Yarmouth businesses will also be able to talk directly to John Hayes MP and follow up on this meeting at a special lunch he had agreed to attend after he has delivered a keynote speech at the Chamber’s Sustainability 2013 Conference on 8 May at the John Innes Centre.

Caroline Williams CEO Norfolk Chamber of Commerce said “It is essential that Government Ministers hear directly from local businesses about their needs and concerns and it is great that we have these opportunities to talk, one to one, with John Hayes as Energy Minister and influence his thinking and hopefully his actions”.

The East of England was the most represented UK region at last month’s Offshore Wind Energy event in Paris.

Those businesses now have the opportunity to capitalise on this success and follow up the leads and contacts made in Paris by attending THETIS. This is an international convention on Marine Renewable Energies that will take place in Brest, Brittany from 10 – 11 April 2013. (www.thetis-emr.com/uk).

Many of the French companies, who attended in Paris and had expressed a strong interest in partnering with UK, have already registered for THETIS, so this is an excellent opportunity to consolidate any gains, or simply to meet those companies that you did not quite manage to meet in Paris.

UKTI are subsidising a UK pavillion at THETIS and companies that are among the first to commit to THETIS will be able to have their own area to hang posters, put up pop up banners and run presentations/videos on laptops, as well being able to access a “meeting area” and set up one-to-one meetings within the UK pavilion.

Participation is via the OMIS programme @ £585 plus VAT per company, which is considerably less than it would cost independently for up to two delegates, including their entrance fee, two days exhibiting at the event, UKTI support and up to 20 one-to-one meetings during the event.

East of England businesses can register their interest in THETIS, by sending an email to the following email address: a.highet@uktieast.org.uk which will gain them access to the support provided by UKTI in the East of England.

Space in the UKTI pavilion will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis and will depend on a combination of when you send your email and when you agree formally to the OMIS.

For more details of THETIS, please see the attached document.

The European Commission has recommended to the EU Council of Ministers that the Union should vote in favour of renewing two long-standing trade agreements: the International Sugar Agreement and the Grains Trade Convention.

It is seeking the Council’s authorisation for Commission representatives to vote, on behalf of the Union, in favour of renewal at the forthcoming meetings of the governing bodies of these two agreements.

The Grains Trade Convention 1995 was concluded by the EU by Council Decision 96/88/EC until 30 June 1998 and, since then, it has been regularly extended.

Last considered in June 2011, it remains into force until 30 June 2013. A further extension of the Convention by up to two years is seen by the Commission as being in the EU’s best interest.

Similarly, the International Sugar Agreement 1992 was concluded by the EU by Decision 92/580/EEC and entered into force on 1 January 1993 for a period of three years until 31 December 1995.

Since then, it too has been regularly renewed for further two-year periods.

The Agreement was last extended in June 2011 and remains into force until 31 December 2013. The Commission has said that it would be in the interest of the Union to vote for an extension of the Agreement to 31 December 2015.

It is intended to facilitate trade by collecting and providing information on the world sugar market and other sweeteners and provides a forum for intergovernmental consultations on sugar and on ways to improve the world sugar economy.

The Convention exists to further international co-operation in all aspects of trade in grains and to promote the expansion of international trade.

Healthcare UK, the new organisation set up to promote Britain’s healthcare sector to international customers, will be launched in the Middle East at a major international trade show this month.

In a joint initiative between the Department of Health, NHS Commissioning Board and UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), Health Minister Lord Howe will launch the organisation at the Arab Health Congress in Dubai on 29 January.

He will be joined by UK Business Ambassador Lord Darzi and the newly appointed Healthcare UK Managing Director, Howard Lyons.

Lord Howe described the UK as a world leader in healthcare, with unrivalled experience and expertise in meeting the health needs of a diverse population.

“Healthcare UK is good news for the UK economy, which will benefit from the extra jobs and revenue created by our highly successful healthcare industries as they trade more across the globe,” he went on. “It also means more money for the NHS across the UK.”

The aim is to provide a single gateway to the UK’s capabilities in healthcare – private, public and academic – to help international customers access the UK’s expertise.

UKTI Chief Executive Nick Baird said that Mr Lyons brought a great deal of international commercial healthcare experience to his new job, having worked in the NHS and the private health sector in Britain and overseas.

One of the tasks of Healthcare UK will be to facilitate the formation of consortia of UK organisations to provide complete solutions to major healthcare challenges.

Qatar Customs Authorities, have issued a new ruling with regard to goods being directly shipped to Qatar from the UK with an EC Certificate of Origin. It is causing some confusion and problems so please be aware of this.

• The Notice states that it is the responsibility of the UK Exporter who is exporting the goods, to raise the relevant EC Certificate of Origin in the UK
• What is actually happening in practice is that the Qatari Customs are refusing to accept EC Certificates of Origin issued in the UK which contain goods of foreign origin. In effect, they are not accepting foreign origin goods from the UK.

Norfolk Chamber has contacted the British Chambers of Commerce for clarification, as we know this will affect many exporters in our region.

They suggest that BEFORE SHIPPING YOUR GOODS, you should raise your EC Certificate of Origin and scan/email to your client and ask them “will this be accepted by your Customs Authority?”

If your client says no, you should then raise an Arab Certificate of Origin but this will cost a lot more to process so please be aware of this. Prices for Arab Certificates can be obtained by calling the International Trade Team on 01603 729712.

For those of you who ship to Qatar by air, please see the Documentation Procedure for Air which outlines everything you need to show on the Invoice and other documents.

As and when we receive any further news on this matter, we will update our website accordingly

The government finally published its response to the Sickness Absence Review last Thursday. The response committed government to introduce an independent health advisory and assessment service that will provide an independent assessment of employees who have; been off work for four weeks; retain tax relief on Employee Assistance Programmes; reduce record requirements for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and look at removing tax disincentives for employers who want to pay for medical interventions for sick members of staff. The Percentage Threshold Scheme for claiming-back SSP will be scrapped.

On last Monday the Pensions Minister confirmed that the government will introduce a single-tier state pension from April 2017. This will reduce complexity and offer a higher state pension for the self-employed but may reduce the state pension for higher earners; this will also eliminate ‘contracting out’ and associated national insurance rebates. The government will explore the possibility for defined benefit schemes to change scheme rules to compensate for this loss without trustees’ permission.

Last week began with BCC senior policy advisor Mike Spicer giving evidence to the Transport Select Committee on the government’s aviation strategy, with specific focus on aviation capacity in the UK. During the evidence session he highlighted the cost businesses are facing due to ongoing uncertainty over airport expansion. He also spoke about the need for additional runway capacity at Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick. Representatives from Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Scotland and Liverpool Chambers also gave evidence to the select committee on the day.

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill entered day seven in committee whilst the Energy Billcontinued through committee stage last week. The BCC supports the thrust of this Bill and is working hard to ensure that business interests remain at the heart of government energy policy. This week the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards will to hold evidence sessions, and the Growth and Infrastructure Bill will continue through the House of Lords committee.

The inflation figures published last Tuesday confirmed that CPI remained unchanged for the third successive month in December at 2.7%. The largest upward pressure came from the price increases in utility bills but this was offset by downward pressure from air fares. Although there is some uncertainty around the near term outlook, our view is that inflation will start to creep up over the next few months before slowing later in the year.

Recentretail sales figures were weaker than predicted. UK sales fell at a seasonally-adjusted 0.1% in December from the month before. Although retail sales were up 0.3% in annual terms, it was slowest annual growth rate for a December since 1998 – with the exception of December 2010. These figures increase the risk that the ONS will announce a small negative figure for the fourth quarter this week.

The rules on food imports from Japan, following the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power station on 11 March 2011, were until recently imposed by Regulation 284/2012. This has now been replaced by Regulation 996/2012 governing imports of Japanese food and animal feed. This Regulation notes that, since 2002, Regulation 178/2002 on the general principles and requirements of EU food law has provided for the possibility of adopting appropriate EU emergency measures for food and feed imported from a third (non EU) country in order to protect public health, animal health or the environment, where the risk cannot be contained satisfactorily by means of measures taken by the Member States individually.

Following the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power station, the European Commission was informed that radionuclide levels in certain food products originating in Japan – such as milk and spinach – exceeded the action levels in food applicable in that country. Such contamination may constitute a threat to public and animal health in the EU and the European Commission (EC) therefore imposed special conditions governing the imports of feed and food originating in or consigned from Japan. Keeping the situation under review, the EC has replaced the relevant regulation on a number of occasions. The most recent version (Regulation 284/2012) applies from its date of entry into force (30 October 2012) until 31 March 2014.

A new framework to enhance the EU’s ability to enforce its rights in the international trading system has been put forward by the European Commission.

Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said that ensuring EU’s partners respect the agreed trade rules is essential to make trade agreements work for the European economy.

Covering the EU’s responses in cases of illegal trade measures in other countries, the proposal aims to provide for effective action to safeguard the interests of EU companies and workers.

A framework will be established to enable the Commission to take executive action when the trade interests of the EU are at stake, rather than, as at present, reacting on a case-by-case basis when EU rights are not respected.

This should allow the EU to implement trade responses in a more streamlined, efficient manner in order to encourage the offending country to remove the illegal measures.

“The EU’s membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and bilateral trade agreements help the EU economy,” Mr De Gucht said. “However, those agreements must be respected for them to deliver results.”

Action under the proposed new regulation could also be taken to compensate for import restrictions imposed on EU products in exceptional situations (so-called safeguard measures), or to react to cases where a WTO member country changes its trade regime in a way that negatively affects EU trade (such as raising its import tariffs) without adequate compensation.