Chamber News

The next update to e-z Cert will be taking place in the new few days on the exporters side of the system. You will therefore find some product enhancement changes when you log in.

The update contains the following changes:

Feature 527 To help raise awareness of exporters responsibility to check applications before submission a new preview area and tick box has been added to the submit screen.

Feature 654 For all express applications certificate letters and numbers are now being captured. This will prevent the letters being missed.

Feature 59341 As per the update to HMRC notice 827 the EUR1 declarations have been slightly amended.

Feature 108 For applications which only include uploaded documents the Applicant/Exporter can now be selected on the Submit screen. Previously it was set in the background from the default exporter but couldn’t be changed within the application.

In addition to the above changes some performance enhancements have been made in the background.

Don’t forget to feedback to us how you are finding these changes, by emailing: export@norfolkchamber.co.uk

The Chancellor of the Exchequer and Chief Secretary to the Treasury have unveiled a new UK Guarantees scheme aimed at accelerating major infrastructure investment and providing enhanced support to UK exporters.

The infrastructure part of the scheme is already in place but the export refinancing facility will not be available until later this year. It will support British exporters by ensuring that overseas buyers have the long-term funding they need.

UK Export Finance will begin supporting loans by the end of the year. Up to £5 billion of loans outstanding will be supported, with the programme designed to ensure that there are minimal risks to the public finances.

Sectors supported could include aerospace, oil and gas extraction equipment, transport and telecommunications infrastructure services, hospital construction and management services, and sports infrastructure.

Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry, John Cridland, said: “Investment and exports will be the dual drivers of future growth in the UK and this scheme should help fire up both engines.”

With regard to long-term loans to buyers of UK exports, he said: “We are not alone in seeking growth through exports – our European neighbours are competing to break into the same high-growth markets. Offering loans to foreign buyers will make UK exports more attractive and help more firms enter new markets.”

Aiming to address congestion and long-term capacity issues on and around the strategically crucial A14, the Government has said that it will add a major scheme involving tolling to the Department for Transport (DfT)’s programme of major projects.

A study has confirmed that funding for the planned changes can be generated in part through tolling a length of the enhanced A14, featuring around 20 miles of new or widened road.

However, the DfT will need to do more work to determine the best solution, including what length the tolled section should be, how users would pay and what the tariff should be.

Transport Secretary Justine Greening said: “The A14 is a crucial strategic route for the east of England, vital not only for international road traffic using the port of Felixstowe but everyone who relies on it daily.”

She explained that the improvement package includes: widening the Cambridge Northern Bypass between Milton and Girton and enhancement of the Girton Interchange; provision of high standard roads for local traffic use running in parallel to an enhanced A14 carriageway between Girton and the area near the current Trinity Foot A14 junction; and construction of a bypass to the south of Huntingdon between the area near Trinity Foot and the A1, at both ends tying in with the existing A14.

For the Confederation of British Industry, Director-General John Cridland said: “As the major route for goods coming into the UK by road, linking one of our busiest ports at Felixstowe with the Midlands and the North, the A14 has been crying out for the sorts of improvements the Government is proposing.”

He said that the plans showed that the Government was looking at innovative ways of attracting private investment into the areas of infrastructure that need it most.

However, sustainable transport campaigner Sian Berry, speaking for the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “Behind the spin, the reality is that it doesn’t give the go-ahead to a large toll road through the Cambridgeshire countryside, but simply moves all the options into the next stage of consideration by the DfT.”

With rumblings of the UK heading towards losing its AAA credit rating within the next 12 months, George Osborne is now planning to pump £50 billion into reviving the floundering economy.

The new UK Guarantees scheme aims to dramatically accelerate major infrastructure investment and provide major support to UK exporters. Under the scheme, major infrastructure projects that are struggling to access private finance because of adverse credit conditions will be able to go ahead – as long as these projects are ready to start within the next 12 months.

A staggering £40 billion worth of such projects will be supported. Also, £6 billion has been set aside for a temporary lending programme for 30 public private partnership infrastructure projects that are ready to start in the next year.

A £5 billion export refinancing facility will be available towards the end of 2012 to support British exporters.

The move has been welcomed by the CBI.

John Cridland, CBI Director-General, said: “Investment and exports will be the dual drivers of future growth in the UK and this scheme should help fire up both engines.”

However, the British Chamber of Commerce is sceptical that these may be empty promises.

Dr Adam Marshall, Director of Policy, stressed: “What’s clear is that these announcements are long overdue. Business expects speedy action, rather than yet more unfulfilled promises.”

The bilateral trade agreement between South Korea and the EU will help revitalise international trade.

The EU has long argued that one of the main ways out of the current economic problems afflicting its Member States is to encourage international trade, and it worked as hard as any of the participants to revive the moribund World Trade Organization (WTO) talks. However, lack of progress over several years with regard to multilateral deals left it with little choice other than to pursue bilateral options, and one of the most important of these is the reciprocal preferential trade agreement with South Korea, which entered into force in July 2011. One year on from that date, this article examines the benefits that were forecast to flow from the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and looks at the extent to which experience has matched up to expectation.

What did the EU expect to get from the deal?

South Korea’s economy is the EU’s sixth most important trading partner outside Europe, behind the USA, China, Japan, India and Brazil. Most significantly, EU exporters of industrial and agricultural goods to South Korea will no longer pay tariffs, meaning that exporters will potentially save €16 billion annually. In addition, the FTA will open up several billion euros worth of new opportunities for EU companies in the services sectors as the Agreement will not only offer commitments on services on a par with those offered by South Korea in its draft FTA with the USA, but also go beyond those in sectors of specific EU interest. These include securing full market access for EU’s shipping firms and enabling access for EU providers of international express delivery services to the Korean market.

Under the FTA, South Korea will generally recognise European certificates and test results. Therefore, no duplicative tests or certification will be required, tackling non-tariff barriers (NTBs) in the electronics, pharmaceutical and medical devices sectors. Another important EU sector – car manufacturing – will gain from a combination of elimination of South Korean duties and NTBs. The 8% tariff on EU cars exported to South Korea will be removed, which means that, for every car worth €25,000 exported to South Korea, €2000 in duties will be saved. Of even greater significance is the ambitious NTB package under which South Korea accepts equivalence of international or EU standards for all its significant technical regulations.

The FTA includes a comprehensive chapter covering provisions on copyright, designs, enforcement and geographical indications (GIs). It also prohibits and sanctions certain practices and transactions involving goods and services which distort competition and trade between the parties. This suggests that anti-competitive practices such as cartels, abusive behaviour by companies with a dominant market position and anti-competitive mergers will not be tolerated by the EU and South Korea, and will be subject to effective enforcement action.

Finally, the Agreement includes an efficient dispute settlement mechanism to ensure the enforceability of commitments taken, as well a mediation mechanism to tackle NTBs. The procedures envisaged under the dispute settlement chapter foresee arbitration ruling within 120 days, much faster than anything available through the WTO.

One year on

The importance of the deal with South Korea is that it is the first of a new generation of FTAs intended to go further than ever before with regard to lifting trade barriers and making it easier for European and foreign companies to do business together. The reaction of EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht to the first few months of the Agreement suggests that the Commission is happy with the way things are going so far. Because of lower import tariffs for European products at the Korean border, he said that EU firms had made estimated cash savings of €350 million in duties after just nine months.

The full benefits are not apparent at this early stage, he explained, as the FTA envisaged eliminating tariffs for industrial and agricultural goods in a progressive, step-by-step approach. By 1 July 2016, the majority (98.7%) of import duties in trade value for both industrial and agricultural goods will be eliminated, but it will not be until July 2031 that all (well, 99.9%) of EU-South Korea bilateral trade will be duty-free. It will, the Commissioner suggests, be 5 or 10 years before the trade benefits of the agreement can be assessed with certainty. To get at least a preliminary view of the success or otherwise of the FTA, the Commission has compared EU trade figures with Korea over nine months – from the entry into force in July 2011 until March 2012 – with an average of the figures from the same months over the previous four years, to reflect the fluctuation in trade due to the economic crisis.

Impact on exports

This showed that EU exports to South Korea increased by €6.7 billion, or 35%. Exports to other countries also grew during this timeframe (by 25%) but the greater level of increase of exports to Korea indicates, in the Commission’s view, that the early tariff eliminations are already having some effect.

• Exports of products where the tariff was eliminated on 1 July 2011 (eg wine, some chemical products, textiles and clothing, iron and steel products, machinery and appliances, representing 34% of EU exports to South Korea) increased by €2.7 billion (46%)
• For products that were only partially liberalised on 1 July 2011 (eg cars and agricultural products, representing 44% of EU’s exports to Korea), the increase is €3 billion (36%)
• For products where there was no change to the tariff (eg some agricultural products, representing 18% of EU exports) the increase is €1 billion (23%)

Among the real success stories were pork – exports up by almost 120%, which equates to new trade worth almost €200 million – and leather bags and luggage, up by over 90%, representing €150 million in extra trade.

What’s next?

With similar deals pending with the USA, India, Canada, Japan and Singapore, a lot depends on the pioneering Korea deal being a success. So far, at least, the outlook looks to be cautiously optimistic.

• Public sector borrowing in June 2012 was £14.4bn, compared with £13.9bn in June 2011

Commenting on the public sector finance figures for June 2012, David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:

“The deficit in June was higher than a year ago, and confirms the challenges facing the UK in restoring its public finances. Deficit reduction will be a difficult task, and will put further pressure on both businesses and consumers over the coming months. Judging by these figures, we expect total borrowing in 2012/13 to reach £98bn – £6bn more than the OBR predicted in March.

“Although there are many calls for the government to ease the pace of the fiscal squeeze, doing so now would be a mistake. The right approach is to persevere, but combine focused deficit reduction with more forceful policies to support growth. The Chancellor has earned considerable credibility in the financial markets, and now it’s time for him to make use of that credibility to help the private sector flourish. Cutting regulation, implementing the recent announcements on infrastructure and export support, and creating a business bank would help businesses drive growth.”

The members of the West Norfolk Chamber Council met recently at Congham Hall Hotel, Grimston, King’s Lynn. Their economic round table discussion identified that many businesses in West Norfolk were steadily ‘ticking over’ and that some of the medium sized SME’s were actively looking to finance growth. Whereas the ‘micro’ businesses had no appetite to borrow money to expand and grow further at present.

A presentation on the Hanseatic economic area was given to the Chamber Council by Ostap Paparega, the Regeneration & Economic Development Manager for King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council. A briefing note will be published shortly.

Norwich Chamber Council met recently and invited Andrew Bell, CEO of Norwich International Airport (NIA) to provide an update on the airport. Andrew advised that NIA had enjoyed 4 years of double-digit growth and that they were now operating a much more streamlined business. Their offshore service was improving and a fourth helicopter had joined the fleet based in Norwich. NIA’s core route is to Amsterdam and this route was performing very well. Andrew also advised that the airport was looking to increase their Summer 2013 programme for package holiday traffic.

The Chamber Council’s economic round table discussions highlighted that Norwich businesses are finding it tough and it was apparent that some firms were finding it hard to finance their growth aspirations, as bank lending was proving difficult. Additionally businesses looking to recruit were struggling to find the right calibre of staff.

The Chamber Council also noted that at present a ballot is being undertaken on the Norwich Business Improvement District (BID) and the voting closes on 30 July 2012.

The Great Yarmouth Chamber Council meeting was recently held at the E-Tech Group’s office. The economic round robin highlighted that whilst Great Yarmouth businesses were doing reasonably well, the economic climate was still tough. A recent British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) had indicated that confidence had dipped in the manufacturing and export sectors, in comparison to previous quarters. Chamber Council members in the engineering sector advised that although there was a lot of engineering work available, bank assistance for cash flow to support business growth was hard to obtain.

Simon Grey, the new CEO of East of England Energy Group (EEEGR) also attended the July meeting and updated the Chamber Council members on what he had achieved in his first 6 weeks on the job. It was agreed that it was important to ensure that both the local and the wider business community needed to be kept up to date on what was happening in the energy industry, particularly with regards to the wind and renewable energy sector.

Louis Hilldrup-Boorman has been appointed as Events Assistant Apprentice by the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce. Louis is studying for a level 3 NVQ and BTEC diploma in Marketing and is hoping to gain the work-based qualifications after an 18-month stint as part of the Chamber team.

Commenting on his appointment, Louis said: “I am very excited to be working with the Chamber. This is the ideal place to build my experience in event strategy, planning, promotion and delivery, because the Chamber is so well known for its superb event management. The team is great to work with and I am really enjoying my work here.”

Abi Charter, Senior Events Co-ordinator at the Chamber, said: “We are delighted to have Louis on board. He is already proving to be an invaluable member of the team here and has delivered a number of events. Event management is all about organisational ability, efficiency and attention to detail, all with a smile, and Louis has shown he has these qualities in abundance.”

Norfolk Chamber is supporting the National Apprenticeship Scheme, which provides businesses with an opportunity to appoint valuable staff members looking to gain a work-based learning qualification.

• Annual CPI inflation down from 2.8% in May to 2.4% in June
• Annual RPI inflation down from 3.1% in May to 2.8% in June
• The biggest downward pressures on prices came from clothing and footwear

Commenting on the inflation figures for June 2012 published today by the ONS, David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:

“Inflation fell in June, which is positive news for the economy. If these trends continue, the squeeze felt by businesses and consumers will ease, and improved disposable incomes will boost demand in the economy. Lower global energy prices and the strong pound against the euro have contributed to these downward pressures. The rise in sterling could adversely affect competitiveness, but this is likely to be offset by increased demand as a result of lower inflation.

“There is a chance that towards the end of the year or in early 2013, inflation will temporarily fall below the 2% target. This will follow a prolonged period of above target inflation, and should not be a cause for concern for the MPC. While austerity measures are putting downward pressure on demand, there would be nothing wrong with allowing below target inflation to support consumer spending. With this in mind, we believe there is no need for further increases in quantitative easing.”

Do you want to play a key role in developing local hospital services? If you have the passion and a good track record in business or finance, then The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn wants to hear from you. The hospital Trust Board has launched a search for a new Non Executive Director.

The new director is needed to take up official duties in the autumn, filling a vacancy created by the completion of a term of office of one of the six current non-executive members. Chair of the Board of Directors, Kate Gordon, says that the role presents a tough challenge but plenty of job satisfaction for the right person.

Kate explained: “We are a relatively small body of non-executives and we work very closely at Board and committee level with the senior executive staff. Our role is to bring the experience and skill we have developed in our individual careers into the NHS and to use it for the greater good of local people.”

This means playing a vital part in the initiation and development of new hospital services, and keeping a watchful eye on overall performance to ensure standards are maintained and local people cared-for efficiently and effectively. Non-executive directors do not become involved in the day-to-day running of the hospital but take a strategic role, planning the long-term development of services and keeping executives to account.

Kate said: “More than anything we’re looking for someone with a real passion and commitment to bring about change for the better. We are looking for a person from the Norfolk or Fenland area with a good track record at a senior level in business, finance or change management.”

Non Executive Directors receive a fixed remuneration to cover their time and expenses for the three days per month (as a minimum) that the commitment requires.

Additional details and an on-line application form are available on the NHS Jobs web site at: https://www.jobs.nhs.uk

Potential applicants can call Gill Rejzl, Company Secretary, for an informal chat on 01553 613614. Alternatively you can apply by sending a CV and supporting letter to: Gill Rejzl, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn, Gayton Road, King’s Lynn, Norfolk PE30 4ET.