British politics and Brexit negotiations have dominated headlines for the past two years, and as this publication goes to press – a few weeks before Britain’s scheduled March 29 exit date – there doesn’t appear to be any let-up in the drama. With very recent events suggesting there may be a possibility that Brexit could be deferred until later in the year, those who hoped that there would be more clarity – and less talk – about Brexit after March will be sorely disappointed.

Although Britain’s agonies are going on for longer than originally billed, trade continues – as does the need for trade finance. In this publication we reached out to UK trade financiers and exporters and asked them to cast aside the politics and talk to us about the practicalities of their business today.

Included in the contents is an in-depth Trade Briefing with independent economist Rebecca Harding about UK trade growth, sectors, partners and risks, complete with comprehensive graphs. Her analysis also contains a fun ‘what if’ breakdown that looks at the impact on trade of several aspects of Brexit, such as higher tariffs, lower foreign direct investment, a drop in the value of sterling and reduced GDP.

Elsewhere, we line up trade and export finance bankers from the ‘big four’, plus others, for a detailed discussion about the changing trade landscape and whether or not government support for exporters is going far enough.

We also have two features that focus specifically on exporters’ needs in terms of long and short-terms finance and find that – Brexit aside – there is plenty more that can be done for UK businesses.

We hope that this second annual GTR+ UK publication, and the remainder of our GTR+ suite, will be a practical tool for our readers as they negotiate the complexities ahead.