My Column

Trade deals dont stop for politics

  • Date: Monday 22nd May 2017
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In amongst all of the recent General Election hubbub, you’d be forgiven for missing several significant developments on the trade front.

Make no mistake – the consequences of these deals for Scottish businesses are far-reaching, covering the trade of all goods and services. In other words, we’re talking pivotal developments that could make or break vast swathes of indigenous enterprise.

Last week, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg quietly paved the way for a possible quickie trade deal between the UK and the European Union.

It undoubtedly represents a landmark ruling, and it surprised many in the business community, allowing further powers to be conferred on Brussels and removing the need for the ratification of EU trade deals by member parliaments.

In theory, it could cut down the process of passing an eventual trade agreement with the UK, if they can get something both parties are happy with on the table in the first instance.

While the new ruling is a tentatively positive step, there’s a long way to go before we see the lie of the land, and that’s before you’ve factored in the outcome of the General Election, not to mention the potential prospect of a second referendum on Scottish independence.

That said, if the UK can navigate its way through trade negotiations in the months and years ahead, perhaps this ruling could be a real light at the end of the tunnel for our economy.

Further afield in the Far East, the Scottish Chamber of Commerce (SCC) had its own trade news to share last week.

In an exciting turn of events for Scottish exporters, a new international trade base for Scotland was announced in Yantai during what was billed as an “exploratory visit” to China’s Shandong province, led by the SCC president Tim Allen.

A Memorandum of Understanding for further trade engagement was signed and key sectors including robotics, artificial intelligence and bioscience were all highlighted as areas of interest to the trade partnership.

Likewise, a whole host of other areas have been identified, including food and drink and even football management.

This is undoubtedly encouraging news from one of China’s largest economies. The next step is to identify Scottish companies with goods and services prime for export.

I’m sure there won’t be a shortage of interested parties among Scottish businesses. With a population of around 100 million, Shandong seems a lucrative market to explore.

And I’m sure many will be monitoring how this budding relationship develops.

Finally, at the other end of the trade spectrum, there was an update last week on domestic production and services output.

In the month of April, small growth was registered in the Scottish private sector, which accounts for around half of the nation’s economy.

The Bank of Scotland’s regional purchasing managers’ index (PMI) showed this was bolstered by manufacturing, which counteracted the effect of shrinking services output for the month.

And while there was a modest increase in orders across both services and manufacturing, which could spell good news for next update, a bulk order from Shandong could be just what the doctor ordered to keep the numbers moving in the right direction.

 

SIDE

Scotland tasted its first ever Street Food Awards last week – and we’ll be definitely coming back for seconds.

For many, street food conjures up images of a pigeon-pecked bag of chips discarded on Sauchiehall Street, so the Edinburgh gig was a real feast for the senses.

The three day extravaganza featured the best Scottish fare from across the country including swanky seafood, fried chicken, Asian fusions, BBQ meats and even authentic Czech street food with a Scottish twist.

The top two traders from the festival have qualified for the British awards in September – with seafood vendor ShrimpWreck, picking up the public vote while fried chicken specialist The Buffalo Truck was singled out by the expert chefs.

It’s not a new concept though. Pop-up festivals have been grilling, frying and roasting their wares in cities up and down Scotland.

Vendors have also reported a surge in bookings for weddings and other celebrations, while shopping centres are getting in on the act and serving up a double win as they beat the Scottish weather. Nobody wants a soggy burrito.

One of the most popular is in Glasgow’s Buchanan Galleries. Their street food hub – which changes regularly – includes Mexican, Asian, home baking and vegan dishes.

The boom is indicative of wider food and drink sector fortunes in Scotland. Exports rose to a record £5.5bn last year with massive gains in sales of seafood and whisky, while exports to EU countries were worth £2.3bn, up £133m. Government ministers have also set a target of doubling the sector value to £30million by 2030.

All of which says our guys are definitely cooking up a storm on the world stage.

 

LAUGH

When friends of mine started talking about a giant, kangaroo-eating cat, I feared for the people of Australia.

Thankfully, it wasn’t some feline Godzilla on the rampage down under, tearing its way into the Sydney Opera House. They were simply referring to a remarkable three-year-old Maine Coon cat called Omar who quietly resides in Melbourne.

However, the magnificent moggy weighs in at an incredible 14kg, is three times the size of your average cat, and eats RAW kangaroo for lunch.

Owner Stephy recently set up an Instagram account for her pet and has already amassed over eight million followers.

She has also been contacted by the Guinness World Records organisers who think he could be the longest cat in the world at around 120cm.

Imagine picking him up for a cuddle? MEOWCH.

 

WEEP

I was saddened to see pictures of little Megan Donald who wound up in hospital after getting her tongue stuck in a Disney-branded cup for more than four hours.

Her mum Natalie was called to the school after the Monsters item created a vacuum around the poor youngster’s increasingly sore and swollen tongue.

Doctors tried a variety of tools to shift it, including bolt-cutters, a hacksaw and a drill.

The Disney Store reacted quickly, removing all of the cups from their shelves and destroying existing stock. Strangely though, they haven’t actually recalled the product and seem willing to take the risk of it happening again.

Thankfully, Megan was alright in the end – but it doesn’t excuse the fact that this dangerous item is still out there.

 

 

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