‘Can-do’ continent and major partner for UK businesses

 

North America - The United States and Canada - has an economy almost ten times the size of the UK, a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $21.1 trillion, making it a substantially larger market than the post-Brexit EU 27 at $17.1 trillion or China’s 14.1 trillion.

Canada’s $1.8 trillion GDP is 69 per cent of the UK’s $2.6 trillion, even though it has a population of only 37 million, less than half that of the UK.

The US is home to vast and varied landscapes with abundant natural resources including petroleum and natural gas and it also benefits from the most developed, liquid, flexible, and efficient financial markets in the world.

The country is also a world leader in research and development and consistently ranked among the best markets internationally for its overall competitiveness and ease of doing business.

While famed for an entrepreneurial, ‘can-do’ mentality which it promotes, the US can also be surprisingly cautious, conservative and old-fashioned, making it a place of extremes.

Collectively, UK companies invest more in the US than in any other country and the UK is the country’s largest single foreign direct investor.

Currently, more than 34,000 UK companies export to the US, which represents about £100bn annually, or 19 per cent by value of UK exports, compared to 44 per cent of sales to the EU 27.

Outside the EU, the US is the most important trading partner for almost all UK regions and nations. More than a million US jobs are supported by UK-owned companies operating in the US and every US state has jobs connected to investment from a UK company.

Meanwhile, Canada, also has a ‘business-friendly’ environment built around many ‘world class’ cities as well as the most highly educated workforce amongst Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

Within the G7, the world’s seven largest advanced economies, Canada comes top for fewest days to establish a new business, lowest total effective taxes, good living conditions and quality of life, and being the most reputable country.

Chamber International’s partner for North America, Resolve Gets Results, led by founder and director, Mark Ashton, who spent five years managing the North American sales and service office of a UK textile machinery company, has a US-based sister company, Whitehall Advisory Group, founded in 2006 by Michael Teden, Honorary British Consul in North Carolina, who also started the British American Business Council (BABC) in North Carolina in 1992.

Mark Ashton first met Michael in 1993 and has worked closely with him on transatlantic trade support since 2014.

Resolve Gets Results also has a close partnership in Canada, enabling full support for UK companies interested in exploring either, or both, countries.

 

Contact us for further details and market enquiries.