EXPORT PROMOTION SERVICES (Hansard, 21 May 1990)

§ The Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Trefgarne)

Over 21, 000 people involved in exporting now hold DTI Service Cards. Our market research shows that the services we provide are much appreciated by exporters. The changes we are introducing will help us to provide those services in the ways that are most helpful to exporters by improving the presentation and content of reports and by making it easier to get access to our publications.

744WA

The Market Information Enquiry Service provides reports from any of the 190 Foreign and Commonwealth office Posts around the world, in response to enquiries from UK exporters. Charges were introduced for this service for the first time on 1st April 1989. I recognise that it is important to present reports in a fully professional way and to ensure that consistently high standards are met by our staff in answering enquiries.

The changes that are being made ensure that the minimum standards of presentation and content are met and that work is carried out within specified periods. This will mean that the businessman knows what he is getting when he commissions a report from us. Changes have also been made to the charges for this and other services. Details of the charges that apply from 1st June are set out below.

The aim of the changes to the Market Information Enquiry Service and the Export Representative Service is to reflect more closely the work involved in answering enquiries. In some cases—for example, where an Export Representative Service case for certain countries can be completed with less than 24 hours' work—the charge will be less than at present. Some readily available information will be provided free. In other cases fees will increase.

Charges from 1st June
Market Information Enquiries (inc VAT)
Marketing information held by post (readily available information may be provided free)	£30
Up to 4 hours	£60
Over 4 hours and up to 8 hours	£120
Over 8 hours	£180
Export Representative Service (inc VAT)
Up to 24 hours	£300
Over 24 hours	£600
New Products Service (inc VAT)
Per article for 15 markets	£60
Publication (not subject to VAT)
Hints to Exporters visitor's guide	£5 each
Country profiles	£10 each
Sector reports	£30 each

For the first time a catalogue of publications available from the department, including those which attract a charge and those which are available free, is being published. This will detail in full all the publications, notably sector reports, that exporters will require to obtain invaluable information about overseas markets.

The export publications catalogue will also list five publications jointly produced by the export promotion organisations of the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and Belgium. The publications are in a new series called Setting up in Business In…, which will guide firms in the five countries on the business and legal background to establishing a presence in five markets of the Pacific Rim: Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea. The series will be continued at the end of 1990 with similar booklets on five markets of South America.

745WA