Europe’s SMEs Face New Trade Hurdles
With post-Brexit barriers and COVID-19 disrupting UK-EU trade, SMEs must explore Asian markets. Success requires cultural understanding, market adaptation, reliable sourcing, and strategic skill-building to navigate new global trade realities.
How businesses should prepare for trade with Asia
COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on trade between UK and EU, with all countries reporting significant drops in exports and imports. UK has suffered a much more extreme effect, with ground freight to EU reportedly dropping by as much as 68% in January 2021 after UK’s departure from the EU customs union. It appears that the additional effort and cost required to deal with the post-Brexit trade arrangements is driving many EU businesses to turn their backs on UK suppliers and customers. Equally, there is evidence that smaller UK businesses are calling a halt to selling their products into the EU, at least for the moment.
This will force many UK and EU businesses to turn to non-EU markets to fill these gaps. Countries in Asia, which have dealt with COVID-19 much more quickly, and with less impact on their societies and economies, are now returning to near pre-COVID growth. Many businesses, in particular SMEs, without prior experience of doing business in Asia, are going to need support in developing these trade channels.
The cultural differences in communication and relationships are among the first things to overcome. Identifying which countries and…
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