March 12, 2026 Industry news
The global trading environment has rarely felt more uncertain. US tariffs, EU regulatory reform and mounting compliance demands are placing real pressure on UK businesses, particularly the SMEs that make up the vast majority of our community. And yet, at the moment when exporters need support most, our latest research shows that government is falling short.
A survey of nearly 1,000 UK firms, conducted by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) in partnership with GS1 UK, found that zero per cent of exporters feel they have comprehensive support from government to manage changes in trade policy. A further 73 per cent said they have little or no support at all.
Those numbers point to something more than a gap in government communications. They reflect a structural problem: the way we move goods across borders has not kept pace with how trade itself has changed. Until it does, UK exporters will continue to carry a burden that their competitors in better-supported markets do not.
The cost of standing still
The report, “New trade frontiers for SMEs: digitalising commerce, raising economic growth”, makes clear that digital trade is not a future ambition. It is an immediate commercial necessity. The EU is pressing ahead with a new Single Data Hub. The US has introduced sweeping tariff changes. Meanwhile, the UK’s Single Trade Window remains unimplemented and its customs rulebook has not been comprehensively reviewed since Brexit.
For a small business trying to export to Europe, this creates a very practical problem. Labels and documentation that once worked now need to meet multiple overlapping standards across different markets. As a result, traceability and regulatory compliance can take significant time and resource, burdens that compound with every new regulatory change.
The survey captures this clearly.
Only 12 per cent of exporters said they were very confident their supply chains would remain resilient over the next 12 months. Nearly a third felt exposed to serious risk.
These concerns translate directly into decisions about whether and where to export.
What businesses say they need
When exporters were asked which measures would deliver a direct productivity gain, the answers were telling. Nearly half (46 per cent) pointed to a single data interface with government border systems and better data sharing with customs authorities. Cutting duplication and reducing entry points are not complex asks. They are the basic conditions for efficient trade.
Firms also identified digital tools as significant productivity drivers. Some 37 per cent see e-labelling as a source of direct efficiency gains, replacing multiple physical labels with digital alternatives like QR codes powered by GS1. A further 28 per cent said the same of digital product passports. Respondents described the potential benefits in practical terms: less paperwork, lower labelling costs and faster delivery times.
These tools exist now. The question is whether the right frameworks exist to use them at scale.
The role of global standards
The challenge facing UK exporters is not primarily a technology problem. It is a coordination problem. The friction in international trade often comes not from the absence of digital tools, but from the absence of a common language that lets those tools work together.
GS1 standards provide that language. A QR code powered by GS1 can carry the same product information across multiple markets, linking to verified data in real time. It can meet e-labelling requirements in one jurisdiction, support traceability requirements in another and provide consumers with product safety information in a third, all from a single identifier.
The barcode did something similar at the point of sale 50 years ago. The digital equivalent can do it across the full complexity of modern supply chains.
The report points to work already underway that shows what is possible. GS1’s work in Brazil demonstrates how technology combined with public sector data sharing and unified protocols can streamline border processes and reduce redundant data entry.
The Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 positions the UK as a genuine leader in electronic trade documentation. The forthcoming digital trade corridor pilots with France and Germany offer a real opportunity to test what joined-up digital trade infrastructure can deliver.
A joint plan needed
The report sets out clear recommendations: create e-labelling and digital product passport systems that work seamlessly across key markets, build on the UK’s leadership in electronic trade documentation, establish effective digital trade corridors, develop trade accelerators that give SMEs pathways into fast-growing markets and give fresh impetus to customs reform and a private-sector-driven Single Trade Window.
Standards offer real value when they are adopted consistently and at scale. That requires government to create the right frameworks and industry to implement them. Neither can do it alone.
The 60,000 organisations in our community span every part of the UK economy. Many are the SMEs this report is written for: businesses that want to export, that have the products and the ambition, but that are spending time and money navigating complexity that better digital infrastructure would remove.
Zero per cent comprehensive support is not a number that should appear in any report on UK trade policy. The tools, the standards and the capability to fix that are already there.
