TheCityUK welcomes the Government’s White Paper “Trade and Investment for Growth”
TheCityUK welcomes the Government's White Paper Trade and Investment for Growth and its strong restatement of the case for open markets. Open markets are central to the prospects for TheCityUK's member-businesses in financial and professional services round the world.
The White Paper is right to identify the UK's key export markets and the drivers of change that will affect their prospects. Although the UK has a sound position in many advanced economies, it is the new emerging markets that represent the greatest prospects for the future. This is as true of financial and professional services as of other sectors, and equally true of UK businesses - from the biggest multinationals to seed-corn SMEs - that use our members' financial and professional expertise. TheCityUK welcomes the Government's identification of barriers to financial services in key markets as an issue to be addressed vigorously in the Doha Round and bilateral negotiations. The White Paper's emphasis on the need for the EU to focus on tackling global regulatory barriers is also welcome.
TheCityUK shares the Government's doubts about an excessive focus on reciprocity in trade policy. An open market such as the UK needs to remain open, whatever the course followed by other countries - the position of the City of London as a global market exemplifies this. As the White Paper says, it would be a mistake for the EU to close its own markets if others' markets are not opened.
TheCityUK draws encouragement from the trade priorities identified in the White Paper, and in particular from the statement that, "TheCityUK, a pan-UK private sector body, is the unified promotional organisation for the financial and professional services sectors and remains best placed to catalogue and showcase the skills and services that the UK can offer." There could be no better endorsement for our members' efforts to work with the grain of the Government's objectives for a more prosperous Britain.
