Government support to exporters – in brief

The Government’s policy on trade and investment has been set out in the Trade and Investment for Growth White Paper (February 2011) and The Plan for Growth (March 2011). These both declared that success in international markets was central to the aim of rebuilding the UK economy. To this end, they affirmed the Government’s intention to provide support to exporters and inward investors in order to promote growth.

Direct support for UK exporters is provided predominantly through UK Trade and Investment, a joint non-Ministerial department of BIS and the FCO; and through UK Export Finance, the operating name of the Export Credits Guarantee Department, a Ministerial department overseen by the Minister for Trade and Investment. This note describes their work and summarises recent policy developments in the area of export promotion.