TO ‘FREE TRADE’ OR NOT TO ‘FREE TRADE’?

On Wednesday, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso announced that the European Union and the United States will begin formal discussions on setting up a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The talks will start in the second half of 2013, and no doubt it will take months and years to ‘seal the deal’. If it happens, the FTA will be the biggest trade deal in history. It’s great to have this potential international business landscape ahead of us, and so now is the time for our UK SMEs who are not already trading with the US to research if the US is a viable market for their products or services, and I would say, even if the FTA doesn’t go ahead. We all know it takes time to form good, trusted business relationships. Success in doing international business is not a ‘quick fix’ but companies who also have longer term planning in their sights will be the first to reap those rewards. Therefore ‘to internationalise or not to internationalise?’ is the relevant question.