Board of Trade

The board is one of the government’s highest profile advisory bodies on trade and economic matters. It offers advice to the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and wider government on its trade and exporting strategy, provides intellectual leadership on trade policy and inputs views and specialist insights into relevant policy areas.

The President of the Board of Trade is Jonathan Reynolds MP, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade.

The future direction of the Board of Trade is currently being considered.

Advisers to the board

Advisers to the board act as external champions of UK trade and promote and advocate UK economic interests.

They are senior leaders with a wealth of expertise and years of experience in business, trade, exporting and the politics of trade and exporting.

Advisers are appointed for a 12-month period and may be reappointed. Additional advisers may be appointed as appropriate.

Board of Trade work

The board was relaunched in August 2023 to focus it specifically on exports.

The first meeting of the 2023 to 2024 board took place in September 2023 and marked London Fashion week with a board meeting, industry reception and investor breakfast.

The Board of Trade last met in February 2024. The focus was on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), with discussions on market access barrier resolution and progress against the Board of Trade’s workstreams. The previous Secretary of State and the advisers also visited several SMEs based at Tileyard in London and held a reception with industry to celebrate the Department for Business and Trade’s first anniversary and promote the department’s export support offer to SMEs.

In between quarterly meetings, advisers participate in other activities related to trade and exports with the Department for Business and Trade and other government departments. This includes International Trade Week events, overseas trade missions and the discussions and export action plans of the Board of Trade Subgroups on Innovation and Skills. Recent activities include:

  • a matchmaking event for UK brands and manufacturers in the fashion and textiles sector
  • export support webinars with UK companies
  • trade missions to Dubai, Los Angeles and Riyadh

The previous iteration of the board met 14 times in the following locations:

  • London (June 2023)
  • Cardiff (November 2022)
  • Barrow-in-Furness (March 2022)
  • Derry-Londonderry (November 2021)
  • Glasgow (July 2021)
  • virtual (March 2021)
  • virtual (October 2020)
  • Belfast (May 2019)
  • Durham (February 2019)
  • Swansea (November 2018)
  • Coventry (September 2018)
  • Stirling (May 2018)
  • Preston (March 2018)
  • Bristol (October 2017)

From 2020 to 2022, a series of reports by the Board of Trade offered recommendations for government to consider. The board now discusses and addresses solutions to diverse exporting challenges for UK businesses and sectors and may publish documents related to this work as appropriate.

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