Nigel Sheinwald

Celebrating transatlantic business

Last night I spoke at the Transatlantic Business Awards dinner in New York, which celebrates the very best of British-American business connections. One the highlights of this year's dinner was sharing a platform with Ambassador Louis Susman, my American counterpart in London.

I was pleased to be asked to announce this year's American winner of the Transatlantic Business Award, Tom Glocer, CEO of ThomsonReuters. Tom has created a really remarkable company that represents one of the world’s leading sources of intelligent information for businesses. The UK award went to Peter Sands of Standard Chartered plc and was presented by Ambassador Susman.

Last night was not just about recognizing Tom, Peter and the other winners’ achievements, but celebrating the British-American business relationship in its broadest sense. British companies are the largest foreign investors in the US. The US is the No. 1 investor in the UK. In the last fiscal year alone, there were 621 new American investment projects in the UK, which created nearly 13,000 jobs and amounted to 36% of total inward investment to Britain.  Behind these big picture statistics are real jobs and opportunities that are vital parts of both our economies, and I was pleased to meet people representing some of those companies last night.

Many businesses spend a lot of time considering how their strategies should be shaped by the rise of China, India and Brazil.   It is certainly true that these new markets merit attention, and their growing clout is important. But so is Europe. The economic relationship between the United States and the European Union remains by far the largest, most complex and most important in the world. The European and American economies are the engines of global growth, together totalling 54% of the world’s GDP. In 2008, EU Foreign Direct Investment stock in the US amounted to $1.43 trillion. By comparison, Indian FDI stock in the US was just $4.5 billion, and Chinese FDI stock was only $1.2 billion. Similarly, US investment in Europe is sixteen times more than in all of the BRIC countries combined.  Those facts will change over time, but are going to be with us for the foreseeable future.

These challenging times demand ever stronger international cooperation. One year ago, the world’s largest economies decided to work together, and since then G20 leaders have met three times. The actions our leaders took jointly on financial regulation, fiscal stimulus and other policy areas have prevented another Great Depression. But high rates of unemployment show there is far more Governments need to do to rebuild.

The world economy will not recover unless we remain vigilant about defending free trade. Thankfully, countries have not introduced catastrophic tariffs on a par with Smoot-Hawley. But according to the latest report issued in September, countries have applied a range of trade-restricting measures, which have a “trade-chilling” effect. Protectionist measures risk slowing economic recovery. We need to face down the protectionists and have the courage to complete the Doha Round of international trade negotiations.

I know that the US and the UK will continue to advocate free trade as one important part of the global recovery. Meeting the businesses last night who operate across the Atlantic in innovative, creative and profitable ways reassured me that the best businesses in both our countries will help drive this recovery.

Posted at 08:50 04 November 2009 by Nigel Sheinwald  |  Comments[1]