The UK government has outlined its ambitions to build up UK professional and business services on the global stage, creating a ‘services superpower’ as part of its Trade Strategy.

It acknowledged the significant contribution of services to UK trade; services exports were valued at £508bn in 2024. More than 50% value came from professional and business services and financial services.

“Instead of seeing the services trade as an ‘invisible’ add-on to the balance of payments, we must herald it as the indispensable core of the UK’s contemporary export earnings,” the government said in the strategy.

The government outlines several measures that it will use to deliver on its plans:

A ‘Ricardo Fund’ for easing regulation

The Ricardo Fund is named after the 18th-century economist David Ricardo. The fund will be created to increase support for regulators and international trade teams in order to ease regulatory barriers. Building on the pilot Regulatory Partnerships for Growth Fund, it is expected to resolve trade barriers worth a potential £300m, from a cost base of £2.3m.

As part of this, the government is looking at further alignment of standards, allowing for easier trading between the UK and its partner nations.

More mutual recognition of qualifications

The government is pursuing more Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications (MRPQ) agreements with nations, specifically targeting European nations, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and the Middle East.

Through the May 2025 UK-EU summit, the UK and EU committed to addressing challenges in recognition of professional qualifications and business mobility, with aims to ease market access for regulated services sectors such as law, consultancy and accountancy.

Expansion of UK Export Finance

As outlined in the Industrial Strategy, UK Export Finance (UKEF) funding is increasing by £20bn, putting the total available funding at £80bn. UKEF provides export credit for UK exporters to help them grow their export revenue. The government intends to focus this additional funding on its key growth sectors as outlined in the Industrial Strategy, which includes professional and business services. 

The government also wants to see more SME take-up of UKEF funding by expanding the offer for SMEs. This means new products and digital services, alongside more work with a wide range of banking and non-banking financial institutions to tailor the offer for SMEs more effectively.

More plurilateral agreements

With geopolitical conditions making multilateral agreements more difficult, the government is looking to pursue more plurilateral agreements with smaller groupings of nations. This, the government believes, will allow them to make faster progress in reaching agreements over specifics such as AI adoption in trade and environmental goods and services (including sustainability assurance).

The government cited as an example the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which incorporates Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam and the UK, accounting for 14% of global GDP.

The UK government is pushing to go further with the CPTPP, outlining its goals to deepen the agreement by updating rules on digital trade and financial services; expand into new economies, including those without existing free trade agreements with the UK; and create relationships with other trading blocs, such as the EU and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Goals for these inter-bloc discussions include removal of tariffs, digital trade, rules of origin, supply chains, customs and innovation. Through this, the government hopes to build wider agreements that inch towards multilateral arrangements.

More digital trade agreements

The government wants to open up more digital trade routes with other countries, with this playing a particular role in its strategy to encourage global take-up of UK professional and business services. According to the strategy, 72% of all UK services exports were sold remotely in 2022. This was higher for financial services (96%).

The government wants to create safer, easier routes to market for services firms with more digital trade agreements (DTAs), which will address issues such as insecure data flows. It cites the UK-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement and UK-Ukraine Digital Trade Agreement as blueprints for its approach.

With these agreements, the government hopes to see an uptake in UK financial services, professional and business services and digital technologies globally. This means pursuing specific agreements to expand digital trade in these sectors.

Negotiations have started with Brazil, Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia with a view to setting up new DTAs. The government is also considering a request to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, which includes New Zealand, Chile, Singapore and the Republic of Korea.

John Boulton, ICAEW’s Director, Policy, said that the strategy will usher in an era of a more coordinated approach to trade. “Now the government must make it count. In particular, using the UK’s overseas networks to unlock the potential of cross-border trade deals is central to the strategy’s success.”

With services accounting for 81% of the UK economy, it’s crucial that the UK’s trade approach builds on its status as a services powerhouse, he said, which aligns closely with the Industrial Strategy.

“We’re also pleased to see the enhanced focus on the mutual recognition of professional qualifications, something we’ve called for consistently,” he said. “It’s very important that the UK becomes more open to recognising professionals who’ve qualified in other countries, and this requires more flexibility in how recognition agreements are struck. However, this will only work if an attractive sounding headline deal can be translated into genuine mobility for people on the ground, while provisions on temporary mobility also need to be factored in.”

The government’s pledge to simplify exporting for SMEs is also a plus, he added. “These businesses are a major driver of growth, but it is a reality we hear from members that exporting to our closest trading partners in the EU has become too difficult.”