News story: Liz Truss: Selling Bedfordshire naan bread to India is the ultimate embodiment of global Britain

• Government’s Brexit and Trade deals will give businesses like Signature Flatbreads, who export to 30 counties from its UK bakery, more business opportunities with the rest of the world.

• East of England exports are already worth £29 billion per year, and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss says British business will have every chance to boost these further after Brexit.

The United Kingdom’s proud status as a great trading nation will be enhanced after Brexit, Liz Truss said today (30 August 2018) while visiting Signature Flatbreads in Bedfordshire.

She added that businesses in Bedfordshire, and across the region, will be able to boost trade opportunities, bringing in more income and creating more jobs in the region once we’ve left the European Union.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss said:

Selling naan breads in India from a company based in Dunstable would once have been unthinkable.

It’s this type of entrepreneurial, and go-getting, spirit that will help the UK make a success of this once in a lifetime opportunity to reshape Britain.

We are in a terrific position to take advantage of the new trading horizons open to us after Brexit, and I know that businesses in Bedfordshire and beyond are raring to go.

The East of England is flourishing, and we are hugely committed to ensuring this region and its businesses step out into the world and benefit from our new independent trade policies.

The government is investing in the infrastructure that Bedfordshire needs and the new Woodside Link road has helped connect businesses to the Dunstable area, making it more practicable to set up a business and transport goods. The investment has already generated £2 billion for the local economy.

Successful exports mean the East of England economy was valued at more than £147 billion, according to recent figures. This represents more than 8% of UK total output.

And a growing export economy has also helped bring unemployment to record low levels in the region at just 3%.

The government is delivering on the referendum result and is forging a new trading relationship with the rest of the world.

Just this week the government confirmed that a UK trade agreement with South Africa and other African nations will be ready to enter into force as soon as the EU deal no longer applies to the UK.