Are you a British Government organisation?
The BSPA’s membership is entirely from the private sector. But as a recognised trade association, we are able to maintain good working relationships with arms of government, such as the UK Trade & Investment staff located in consular offices across North America.

What about Government in North America?
We have contacts to the Departments of Commerce in some of the US states in which we are particularly active. We work with both the Canadian High Commission in London and the Office of the Mayor of Toronto.

How about your contacts outside government?
We work closely with many other organisations which foster trade and inward investment. Prominent among these are:

• South Carolina World Trade Center, Charleston www.scwtc.org
• South Carolina Export Consortium, Columbia
• Canadian Service Providers Association, Toronto
• British-American Business Group, Atlanta www.babg.org
• Midlands International Trade Association, Columbia

Do you work with anybody else?
Lots of people! We maintain links to banks, law firms, chambers of commerce, companies and individual businesspeople in:

Alberta, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec, South Carolina, Virginia…….as well as in the countries of the European Union.

Do you only deal with trade and investment involving the UK?
Not at all. We just suggest that North American companies entering the European market usually find it easiest to get used to the differences this side of the Atlantic in a country with the smallest number of them. In the UK, for example, the legal framework and the nature of business have more similarities to North America than is the case in other European countries. And we nearly speak the same language, too…

However, the BSPA network allows us to work in a similar way in other European countries. And we do as much work for companies who already have a foothold in Europe as we do for market entrants.

Who actually provides the services?
All the BSPA member companies are specialist service providers, and most of the time one (or two working in conjunction) will have all the necessary expertise and people in-house. As the majority of members are SMEs, however, they maintain a network of other specialists on whom they can call from time to time. Any BSPA client thus has access to that extended network as well, but with the project always being managed by the BSPA member.

How do you charge?
The BSPA itself makes no charges to clients, being financed by its membership dues. Each project is individual, the fees arising being a matter of negotiation between the client and the BSPA member(s).

When do you charge?
Again, this is a matter of negotiation related to each individual project As a rule-of-thumb, proposals and tenders (as well as, naturally enough, exploratory enquiries) would not give rise to charges unless of a particularly time-consuming nature, and then only by agreement.

If we live in North America, do we ever get to meet you face-to-face?
Individual BSPA members travel regularly to Canada and the United States. In addition, small groups attend specific events such as trade fairs, and will also occasionally join in trade missions organised by other UK organisations. It is also common for us to meet individual business people or trade missions coming to the UK.