Global Business Conference 2024: State-level agreements can benefit West Midlands firms – US experts

Transatlantic business experts say the West Midlands is well positioned to take advantage of trading opportunities with the United States thanks to a series of state-level Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs).

The UK’s MoUs with eight US states – which include Texas, Washington and North and South Carolina - were discussed during the ‘Doing Business in the USA’ panel discussion at Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce’s Global Business Conference yesterday.

The discussion was hosted by James Tait, president of the Transatlantic Chamber, and featured Dr Raymond Davies, chair of BritishAmerican Business Pacific Northwest, Andrea Edwards, director of Global Relations and Research at the University of Birmingham, and Shah Karim, founder of Sovereign Landmark.

Dr Raymond Davies said: “The best way to understand the United States in business terms is state by state.  Although we're not getting free trade agreements, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has been very active getting Memorandums of Understandings (MOU) together.

“DBT has been able to get MoUs with eight states in particular. Although it hasn’t been portrayed as such, the US departments of commerce are serious about these MOUs and trading with the UK.

“There have been many MOUS signed in the fields of healthcare, MedTech, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and fintech as well – most of which the West Midlands can do business with.

“The West Midlands is in a great position to take full advantage of that and approach using a close collaborative type of approach at state level using these MOUs.”

Andrea Edwards spoke about the collaborations between the University of Birmingham and the US.

She said: “We have a particular focus on North America, with a significant amount of investment to support academic innovation and collaboration.

“The US remains as one of our most popular destinations for students wanting to study abroad, and we have over 300 US students on our campus and 3, 000 alumni around the US,

“Our focus on the is very much about our research, engagement, and our reputation, linked into our ambition to be a top 50 global institution.

“The publications and the research that we produce are cited more frequently. We secure more grants through US collaborating with UK and with Birmingham as well, not just for our institutions.

“We have also seen some really great opportunities for collaboration, more generally around MedTech, medical and health technologies, drawn upon the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus and our Birmingham Health Partnership in the UK.

“These are all clear areas for collaboration and opportunities there, I think, for education and business.

Shah Karim, an investment and asset manager operating exclusively in the US market spoke about his experience in navigating the job market.

He began his legal career at PwC UK, then studied International Law at Cornell University in New York before transitioning to real estate investment in the US.

With 20 years of experience, he specialises in transforming distressed real estate into high-yielding investment properties in the US.

Speaking about the business culture in the US, Karim said: “There are slightly different business cultures around the country, depending on the state. And what I've found is that the culture changes dramatically through different states and different regions."

Meanwhile, businesses who are looking to take their innovation products to an international audience were given some expert advice in an Internationalising Innovation panel hosted by Innovate EDGE scale-up director Deb Leary.

Panel speakers included Tim Luft, entrepreneur and Create Central innovation lead, Trudi Sully, UK and Europe lead-Industrialised Design and Construction at Mott MacDonald, Sunny Claire, Innovation and Growth specialist at Innovate UK Business Growth, and Jo Birch, director for Innovation, Enterprise and Employability at Birmingham City University.

The speakers discussed the different sectors within Birmingham that are well-placed to expand internationally, such as AI and VR, med-techs, electric vehicles (EV), construction suppliers, net zero solutions and waste-water treatments, as well as the services available to businesses looking to do so.

They also spoke about the importance of universities in building innovation.

Pictured: From left - James Tait, Andrea Edwards, Shah Karim and Dr Raymond Davies