More than 10,000 jobs supported thanks to £12.8bn in UK-US trade wins

• Recent export and investment wins support over 10,000 jobs across the UK and US
• Major US investment set to create hundreds of new jobs in Scotland
• UK businesses see huge opportunities to increase trade and investment ties with the US as the Prime Minister meets the US President

Recent export and investment wins totalling over £12.8bn and supporting over 10,000 jobs in the UK and US have been revealed today (10 June).

Q2 Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of human data sciences company IQVIA, has announced a multimillion-dollar investment in its R&D activity in Livingston, near Edinburgh, that will create hundreds of new jobs over the next three years.

The project, supported by a multi-million pound grant from Scottish Enterprise, will employ cutting-edge research techniques to enhance understanding of the effectiveness of medicines including treatments for cancer.

In the last month alone, US companies Liberty Global, Kraft Heinz and Innova Medical Group have announced new investments into the UK worth over £10 billion which will create over 2,000 jobs. Elsewhere, Rolls-Royce has recently completed a $600 million investment project to modernise equipment and technology at its Indianapolis manufacturing facility. The investment secures the long-term viability of the site that employs 3500 people and marks Rolls-Royce’s single largest investment in the US in 25 years.

Adding to these successes, a number of UK SMEs are also finding increasing demand for their goods and services in the US.

For example, Rapha Performance Roadwear, a London-based sportswear and lifestyle brand focused on road bike racing, clothing and accessories, recently benefitted from a £200m investment from The Walton Family Office and opened operations in Arkansas.

Yorkshire-based company Paxman Scalp Cooling is now treating hundreds of thousands of cancer patients in the US thanks to its proprietary technology earning US FDA approval in 2017.

The US is the UK’s largest single trading partner, with total trade reaching £196.3bn in 2020.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said:

“More trade means more jobs, more opportunity and a better standard living in both nations. We are working hard to deepen our trade and investment relationship with the US, and I have been engaging closely with my counterpart Katherine Tai to make headway on the major issues facing global trade – not least tackling unfair trading practices and combatting climate change.

“We each employ one million people in each other’s economies and together the UK and US can lead the way in building back better through free and fair trade, from tackling climate change to pioneering new technologies.”

The Department for International Trade (DIT) works closely with hundreds of UK-based firms annually to help facilitate the transition into the US market, providing guidance on setting up companies, market research, and offering key networking opportunities.

Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for North America, Antony Phillipson, said:

“We are committed to securing more access for British goods and services and our extensive team of specialists, which covers nine key sectors in the US, provides SMEs with the necessary one-to-one support to help them grow their export activities with our single largest trading partner. Business interested in seeing how DIT can help them begin or amplify their efforts at selling in the US need only get in touch with us.”

Richard Paxman, CEO of Paxman Scalp Cooling, said:

"The US is not only the world’s largest healthcare market, but a real opportunity for our business to change the face of cancer, and DIT has been a huge support throughout the whole of process, from the very beginning to setting up our offices, to organizing our infrastructure. They have been a key part to making this a soft landing for our company, as we are now offering our treatment in over 350 locations throughout the US.”

The news comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Joe Biden met today where they discussed ways of further enhancing our economic relationship, including through a resolution to the civil aircraft dispute.

Johnson and Biden also discussed our shared values in areas such as tackling climate change and the vital role free and fair trade has to play in delivering the jobs, wages and opportunity we need to drive the global recovery from Covid-19.

The UK and US, along with G7 partners, resolved to work together to strengthen our rules-based global trading system at the recent G7 Trade Ministers’ meeting on 28th May, making it more sustainable, resilient and responsive to the needs of global citizens.

Notes to editors

• To date, Rolls Royce has invested nearly $2 billion in the US and support more than 52,000 American jobs through its supply chain adding $9 billion to the US economy.
• Businesses looking for support can visit great.gov.uk which has a wide range of live export opportunities currently listed and includes general information on exporting and events.
• In 2019, we had more than £760bn invested in each other’s economies, creating high-skilled jobs and supporting our communities. In 2018, more than 1 million people worked for British companies in America, and more than 1 million people did the same for American companies here.
• UK-US trade is vital on both sides of the Atlantic. 38,500 UK businesses exported £57.4bn worth of goods to the US in 2019, and 45,600 UK businesses imported £51.1bn worth of US goods.
• In the four quarters to the end of Q4 2020, total UK exports to United States amounted to £120 billion.
• In the four quarters to the end of Q4 2020, total UK imports from United States were £76.4 billion.
• We have had five FTA negotiating rounds to date, with the last round concluding on 30 October.
• Since then the UK and US continued to hold official-level technical discussions which put us in a good position to resume formal negotiations once the new US Administration have completed their review of negotiations to date.