By David Milliken
LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The United States has pushed past
Germany and France as the most common trading partner for
British businesses, and looks set to keep this position after
Britain leaves the European Union, according to an annual survey
by HSBC.
The proportion of British businesses naming Germany or
France as one of their top three export destinations has almost
halved over the past year, a period of political and economic
uncertainty when Brexit was delayed three times.
"Although the future of Brexit remains unclear, we are
seeing that businesses are thinking beyond traditional markets
in the EU," Ian Tandy, head of global trade finance at HSBC UK,
said on Tuesday.
Under Prime Minister Boris Johnson's latest Brexit deal -
which he hopes to get through parliament if he wins an early
election on Dec. 12 - British exporters will almost certainly
face greater barriers to sales in Europe than at present.
However, Johnson and other Brexit supporters hope that being
outside the EU will make it easier to strike trade deals with
the United States and other economies.
In the HSBC figures, 24% of British businesses named the
United States as one of their top three trading partners, down
from 29% in 2018.
But there was a much sharper fall for Germany and France,
dropping by almost half to 16% and 15%, losing their first and
joint-second spots respectively.
Overall, the survey of more than 1,000 British-based
businesses presents a brighter picture for exports than a number
of other recent studies of business sentiment, which have shown
Brexit and the U.S.-China trade conflict badly hurting morale.
Some 86% of British businesses surveyed for HSBC in August
and September said they were positive about the outlook for
trade, up from 74% in 2018.
"This is surprising, and a testament to the resilience of
the business community," Tandy said.
The European Union as a whole is by far the largest market
for British exports of goods and services, accounting for 291
billion pounds ($376 billion) of overseas sales in 2018,
according to official data, while the United States was the
biggest single country, receiving 121 billion pounds of exports.
Germany, the Netherlands, France and Ireland followed in the
official rankings.
In terms of where firms see scope for export growth, the
United States remained in the top spot, named by 22% of firms,
followed by France, Canada and Germany.
($1 = 0.7747 pounds)
(Reporting by David Milliken
Editing by William Schomberg)