Grace Thompson is the Chartered Institute’s Export & International Trade UK public affairs lead.
Extensive engagement by the Business and Trade Committee has led to them publishing their seven key areas of inquiry for 2026, earlier this week.
These were:
- AI, productivity and the future workforce
- Delivering the Industrial Strategy and rebuilding UK competitiveness
- Inward investment and UK economic security
- Implementation and enforcement of employment rights
- Regulatory reform
- Fostering enterprise: entrepreneurship and micro businesses
- Consumer protection
The committee’s job is to scrutinise the actions of the government, particularly the Department for Business and Trade.
Trade deals, business support and sanctions
More tailored in relation to trade scrutiny in particular, are the following areas of focus:
- Scrutiny of the government’s trade deals
- Ongoing assessment of new arrangements with the US and Europe through bi-annual stock takes
- Export support
The Sub-Committee on Economic Security, Arms and Export Controls will also look at export controls and critical minerals as two of their priority areas.
Chartered Institute Feedback
All of this reflects that the Committee is taking seriously the feedback the Chartered Institute sent through in relation to ensuring the effective implementation of government strategies and supporting economic security through bolstering supply chain resilience.
Our export controls experts were also pleased to have conversations we had with the sub-committee last year on some of the challenges businesses face when engaging with the LITE system and the need to ensure speed of processing.
The seven key priorities of the Committee are broad enough to allow for more tailored focuses within the topic areas, particularly if we have a year with as many twists and turns in trade policy as we had in 2025.
Micro-businesses
I am personally pleased to see a focus on micro businesses.
So often, in my conversations with micro businesses, many feel like they don’t have a voice and that policy doesn’t take them into account, because they do not have the same amount of time and resource to engage in policy processes.
There are many in the trade community who are seeking to change this reality and to ensure that even the smallest businesses have their challenges heard and are part of solution-making.
Another common theme I hear at networking events is a feeling of industry wanting to drive forward measures within the government’s strategies more energetically.
The Quarterly updates on the Industrial Strategy are a reassuring sign that progress is being monitored and reflected into the trade community.
Trade APPG
The International Trade & Investment All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), which the Chartered Institute is the co-secretariat of, is also very much alive to the fact that government strategies haven’t necessarily cut through to businesses across all nations and regions of the UK.
As a result, we have been undertaking our own inquiry on how the Trade Strategy, Industrial Strategy and the Small Business Plan all intersect with each other and how the measures and funding/support available in these strategies can be filtered effectively to the businesses which most need to know about them.
You can respond to our inquiry here.
Whether the APPG, the Business and Trade Committee, or direct consultations from government, there are many opportunities for engagement in order to shape future trade policy for good.
Please do get in touch with my team at publicaffairs@export.org.uk if you ever have any thoughts you would like to share.
