Cancellation of Tradeshow Access Programme under fire

Ministers have been urged to reverse plans to scrap crucial grants enabling businesses to export and win business abroad. There will be no TAP grants offered for SMEs preparing to attend maritime trade shows later this year, including the Monaco Yacht Show and METSTRADE.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) announced, without warning or consultation says British Marine, that TAP grants which provide financial support for businesses to exhibit at international trade shows and are crucial for SMEs to access new markets and raise their profiles overseas, are over.

“This is a hugely disappointing decision made without any stakeholder consultation,” says Lesley Robinson, CEO at British Marine. “With 40% of the UK leisure marine industry’s turnover derived from exports, these TAP grants, although small, are in fact a critical entry level enabler for the many SMEs within our sector, who, without it may not consider attending an overseas show at all. Without TAP grants, there now appears to be very little that DIT does to support SMEs getting a foothold in overseas markets.”

As an appointed DIT Trade Challenge Partner, British Marine says it successfully allocates 60-80 TAP grants for the leisure marine industry each year, mainly for small businesses looking to export for the first time.

Given the timing of the announcement and the short timeframe leading up to these events, British Marine says it is seeking reassurances from the DIT that eligible UK exhibitors will be awarded an alternative fiscal support package for these autumn events.

In response to DIT’s announcement, British Marine, Maritime UK and the Society of Maritime Industries, have written a joint letter to the Minister for Exports, Graham Stuart, urging DIT to keep this lifeline for businesses, or risk losing Britain’s global leadership in maritime services, supply chain, marine science, technology and green innovation.

“If the cancellation of these grants goes ahead, the UK risks becoming an absentee at international trade shows,” says Ben Murray, chief executive of Maritime UK.

“This would come at the worst possible time, with industry looking to bounce back from the pandemic and make a success out of Brexit.

“And this will hit our maritime sector particularly hard, threatening our leadership on green shipping, technology and services in the global industry. It also doesn’t bode well for the prime minister’s promise to ‘bring shipbuilding back home’, with our yards needing overseas orders to thrive.

“The government talks about ‘Global Britain’, but for our innovative SMEs and shipbuilders, this will feel like isolation unless there is a change of course.”

Weeks away from the government’s ‘flagship’ National Shipbuilding Strategy, which will outline plans to deliver the prime minister’s promise to ‘bring shipbuilding back home’, the industry warns that a cancellation of the Tradeshow Access Programme will threaten any programme to revitalise the UK’s shipbuilding industry.

Globally, the maritime sector is set to double to $3trn by 2030. DIT’s plans to cancel TAP will likely spark fears that the UK will not be able to take its share of a growing market, says British Marine.

The cancellation of TAP is also feared to provide an unfair advantage to maritime businesses based in countries such as Denmark, Norway and Germany, whose governments maintain financial support mechanisms to first time exporters to appear at trade shows.

Tom Chant, CEO of the Society of Maritime Industries, says that TAP grants have made a “real difference for maritime SMEs and supported many of them to enter export markets.

“It is vital this scheme is replaced with something bigger and better if we are to properly enable SMEs to compete on a level playing field against their international competition and crucial to retaining our status as a global maritime leader.”