(Secretary of State for
International Trade and President of the Board of
Trade): The Government will today publish the
response to the consultation on UK Export Finance’s (UKEF)
Foreign Content policy. It sets out the approach UKEF will take
to determine the level of non-UK goods, services and intangible
assets in transaction supported by UKEF.
The purpose of the new approach is to ensure that UKEF’s support
is flexible and meets the needs of UK exporters to help them win
business overseas, fulfilling UKEF’s mission to ensure that no
viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance from the
private sector, while operating at no net cost to the taxpayer.
The consultation, published in April 2019, was part of UKEF’s
commitment in the Government’s Export Strategy to review its
products and policies to ensure they reflect the full breadth of
its capability and the needs of business. The consultation
received 28 responses, which were largely supportive of the
approach proposed by Government in the consultation and
reinforced the need for its foreign content policy to adapt to
increasingly globalised supply chains.
The new policy ensures that UKEF will implement a
principles-based approach to Foreign Content, recognising the
full contribution of the UK supply chain. This approach will
supplement UKEF’s current UK content requirement, making it
easier for UKEF to consider support for scenarios which are
outside of a specific export contract, but which nevertheless are
conducive to supporting and developing UK exports.
This approach will broaden the availability of UKEF support for
all sectors including those to which it has not traditionally
provided support. To align with this expectation, UKEF will be
updating its definitions to clarify UKEF’s ability to support
intangible assets.
