Brexit, US-China trade deal tensions, US-EU trade tensions make exporters and especially small businesses vulnerable to the sudden change in economic policies done by public agencies.

1. Special Report
primetarget.tech
Date : October 20, 2019
How Exporters Can Navigate And Win In The Trade Protectionism Era
by Tatiana Miron
The biggest problem for exporting businesses is that they are not prepared sufficiently to handle export
market losses. With the current trade tensions, it is difficult to conduct sustainable business. The
regulatory environment is changing and even travel for salespeople, technical personnel, and
executives can become more difficult. Brexit, US-China trade deal tensions, US-EU trade tensions make
exporters and especially small business vulnerable to sudden change in economic policies done by
public agencies. USA exporters are currently under a lot of pressure. The table below outlines the
immediate effect of trade tensions for a small business in the USA:
Consequences for US exporters
Countries / Partners Current trade tensions Consequences for US exporters
USA - China New trade agreement negotiations
and announcements of high tariffs
Decrease in orders and uncertainty in
future exporting potential to China
UK – EU Brexit deal or no-deal tensions Decrease in orders, delays and more
regulatory barriers, loss of partner to
Europe
EU – USA Announcement of new tariffs on
EU goods
Decrease in orders, expect new trade
barriers and unpredictable future
sales.

2. Special Report
primetarget.tech
With current and future trade agreements in question, and business and development impact
paramount, the world is heading towards a new wave of protectionism. These uncertain times require
business agility. Despite the uncertainty regarding future trade policies, the underlying economic
fundamentals are rather stable which will provide opportunities for exporters. Therefore, to seize the
opportunities in these dynamic environments, exporters will need to build agility into their business.
Exporters will need to remain vigilant and put in place mechanisms that enable them to spot and assess
the impacts of changes in trade policy on their traditional markets while seeking opportunities in new
markets.
Here are five steps to benefit from your export activities even during economic downturns:
1) Best export markets get your full attention
Reinforce presence, build relationship, improve
brand and marketing activities in the best export
markets, make regular follow-up visits, understand
the trends and work closely with your local office or
partner.
2) Reinforce distribution
Use digital platform for e-commerce or referencing.
Small businesses worldwide must increase
“international presence” by using digital platforms
such as eBay, Amazon and Alibaba to connect with customers and suppliers in other countries.
3) Diversify your export markets
Let's say you are exporting currently to UK and Denmark. Suddenly, due to increased tensions
among the countries, your business lost 30 % of its export sales. That means your turnover
will experience a noticeable drop in value. If, however, you counterbalanced these two
European countries with a couple of non-EU markets and some emerging markets in Asia, only
a small part of your turnover would be affected. Therefore, you would want to diversify across
the board, not only different types of developed countries but also different degrees of
development. The more diverse your countries are, the better.

3. Special Report
primetarget.tech
4) Assess your risks before investing abroad
Risk is inseparable from return. Every investment involves some degree of risk, which can be
very close to zero in the case of your home
market and very high if you decide to
develop in highly uncertain countries due to
trade tensions such as China. A broad
understanding of risk in its different forms
can help exporters to better understand the
opportunities, trade-offs, and costs involved
with different export tactics. As in any
investment activities, the diversification is
one of the best ways to manage risks.
5) Go for the ROI when choosing export markets
Once you have evaluated your export countries investment portfolio and you have understood
the risks involved for each individual market, as a small business you will have to go for the
best value markets in each segment to ensure shorter time for return and results.
As a conclusion, in the conditions of the trade tensions and high uncertainty, the small businesses need
to focus their key activities on best “clients”, increase international presence through new distribution
methods, apply diversification tactics to avoid consequences from trade tensions, appraise risks
carefully and invest in highest potential markets. All these actions allow small companies to gain agility
and grow stronger and less influenced by trade tensions. This is the period when your business
development team should be abroad traveling all the time and signing new contracts. The question is,
do you know where?
Technological advances could also provide growth opportunities for exporters by enabling them to
access and compete in new markets while improving their responsiveness to changes in demand.
Businesses should not view technological disruption as a threat but instead embrace technology as a
means to improve their agility and flexibility empowering them to react swiftly to sudden shifts in trade
policies and new opportunities.

4. Special Report
primetarget.tech
Tatiana Miron is the CEO and founder of Prime Target, a startup specialized in international advisory
services and tools for SMEs. She has 15 years of experience in
international trade and development and consulting for 300+
companies. Tatiana acts as a global strategy consultant and
advisor on high-level decisions in an unbiased fashion, using
deep industry knowledge to deliver the best results. Her role is
to use rigorous fact-based, quantitative analysis to identify and
prioritize strategic business issues for clients, and work both top-
down and bottoms-up across key business units and geographic
regions to chart the strategic direction of the global network and
global businesses.
Prime Target helps SMEs and startups accelerate growth and improve performance globally through
the power of data and analytics. The management team is versatile and abreast in growth hacking for
companies with global ambitions. Their purpose is to open access to small and medium enterprises to
a fundamentally new approach in decision making with regards to global strategies, one designed to
match today's fast pace of change and new technologies. Powered by proprietary technology, it is
called the Prime Target Approach.
North America Inquiries
Contact: Joe Dager
Phone: 260-918-0438
Email: jtdager@primetarget.tech
Outside of North America
Contact : Tatiana Miron
Email: info@primetarget.tech
Website : https://primetarget.tech
Twitter: @target_prime