Whatever you think of the US President Elect one thing is certain – President Trump’s uncoming inauguration is generating a lot of interest around the world and, priding himself as a business man, he wants to do business.
.@BorisJohnson joins us in Washington to discuss president-elect @realDonaldTrump and the future of the #SpecialRelationship. pic.twitter.com/b45XByO5Kb
— British Embassy (@UKinUSA) January 9, 2017
In the past 24 hours UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has announced on twitter that the UK will be first in line for a new trade deal with the United States.
Citing a “very exciting agenda of change” it appears that Donald Trump doesn’t agree with outgoing President Obama’s previous declaration that if the UK left the EU then we would be at the back of a queue for a new trade deal.
Of course ecommerce merchants don’t care that much for trade deals, governments don’t do business and the Internet has no respect for domestic borders. But what governments can do is ease customs procedures and red tape and negotiate de minimus thresholds where there are no import duties for goods under a certain value.
The UK is not the only country courting the President Elect and his transition team. Alibaba’s Executive Chairman Jack Ma has just pledged to help create one million jobs in the US in five years by helping small businesses sell products to China and other markets in Asia.
“Jack and I are going to do great things for small business,” Trump said, standing alongside the Alibaba founder in the lobby of Trump Tower”.
South East Asia is a particularly interesting market and one that Alibaba already operates in and whilst the new relationship between Jack Ma and Donald Trump is great news for US merchants, it’s a market that we in the UK should also be eyeing up and making inroads into.
The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States will be held on Friday the 20th of January, on the West Front of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Whilst he is rightly deemed an immensely controversial figure, he will next week become the leader of one of the largest economies in the world. Love him or hate him, he is someone who, at least for the next four years, simply can not be swept under the carpet and ignored.
4 Responses
The US market seems to be a very difficult chestnut to crack. The shipping costs, times and general poor level of communication by US buyers seems the greatest impediment to trade in the US. Even with free trade, not sure this would make much difference. But would be glad to be proved wrong. Unfortunately, there seems to be a significant degree of harmony between the UK and European markets in terms of the products they buy and we buy and the general taste preferences and courtesy of customers in the north European countries. It all still seems like cutting off ones nose to spite ones face. But as I say, happy to be proved wrong.
we find the US buyer educated polite and easy to deal with
we do about 30% North America 10% Europe 10% ROW 50%
UK 50%,
find communication with US buyers quite easy as most speak and understand ENGLISH quite well