Target Benelux and Germany, advises Euro trade expert

Humber businesses are well positioned to take advantage of the massive European market on their doorstep, according to a European trade expert speaking at World Trade Centre Hull & Humber this month.

Ben de Smit, the economic and commercial counsellor at the Embassy of Belgium Flanders Investment & Trade, is one of four speakers at the Doing Business in Germany and the Benelux seminar on May 25.

“Belgium is ready to receive all quality goods from the UK, it is very Anglophile with a large British population, and is open and highly competitive. It is also an entrepot to a huge, very rich European market,” said Mr de Smit.

“The Humber has excellent connections to the Benelux and Germany, and Belgium is very well placed to develop two-way short sea shipping, where companies set up depots or warehouses for their exports but also for imports back to the Humber.

” Belgium, the UK’s sixth largest export market, also benefits from being perceived as a neutral place to set up a European business base.

However, Mr de Smit warns that British companies should pay close attention to their preparations to enter the European markets, while stressing that there are incentives for overseas businesses, such as cheap, serviced offices.

Other speakers at the event include Mark Parkes, managing director of Beverley-based Boston Air, specialist personnel provider to the worldwide aviation, aerospace and power generation industries, and Dr Sasha Heriot, business development manager at Leeds-based Chamelic, which has developed, and successfully sold, products into Belgium.

Delegates will also be able to talk to Stephan Stahl, UK Trade and Investment trade advisor, about entering Germany, the world’s fifth largest economy and second only to the US as the UK’s biggest export market.

Mr Stahl said: “The country has a strong industrial base and is heavily export orientated, consistently running a trade surplus. Even so, opportunities for UK exporters in Germany do exist across all industrial and service sector areas.”

The Netherlands and Luxembourg offer similarly prosperous, developed, dynamic, open markets easily accessible from the Humber region. The Netherlands is the fourth largest market for UK exports, and more than 75 per cent of the Dutch population speak English.

Tony Howard, chair of World Trade Centre Hull & Humber, said: “We encourage businesses to attend this event if they are thinking of going on any future trade missions to Benelux or Germany.”

Register your attendance now: To register your attendance now, please call 01482 485200 or email: jade.elsom@wtchumber.com