There is a real wish from members for the UK to focus on the fundamentals of the operating environment to ensure that its advantages as an investment destination are not eroded.“
A busy first 6 weeks of 2026 culminated in the release of our 2026 Policy Agenda, which you can find here. This document sets out the issues that BAB will be working on throughout the year and has been produced through ongoing consultation with our Policy Steering Committee.
The Policy Agenda establishes four work streams, with multiple issues under each which we are planning to address. The Essential Security Partnership addresses defense and aerospace policy including AUKUS, supply chain issues including critical minerals and the regulation and control of space; given recent events we will also be looking at how the UK and US should work together in the Arctic.
In the section on the Environment for Business Investment we are looking at the fundamental issues of Tax, Competition and Regulation, Workforce skills and availability, and the crucial issue of energy, including cost. We will also provide input on the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, although our sense is that the threshold issues around tax, regulation, labor and energy costs are more critical for our members.
We launched our Policy Agenda at our annual Trade and Investment Policy Conference in London on Feb 2nd. We had a brilliant line up of speakers for this half-day event and are enormously grateful to our member sponsors for their support: 3M, AIG, Amazon, bp, British Airways, Diageo, EY, Lilly, Honeywell, InterDigital, Mars, Inc., and Qualcomm; thanks to all for making this event possible.
That same evening, we co-hosted, with the British-American Parliamentary Group, the US Ambassador, Warren Stephens, at a reception at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, with more than 300 industry leaders and parliamentarians attending. Marking the beginning of the American semi-quincentennial, the Ambassador was introduced by Secretary of Defense, Jon Healey and Shadow Foreign Secretary, Dame Priti Patel. Again, huge thanks to our event sponsors, Honeywell and Lilly for your generous support.
As you would expect, we include our work on Transatlantic Trade and the Economic Prosperity Deal. We will continue to monitor, and encourage progress on, the Economic Prosperity Deal, the Tech Prosperity Deal and the various other framework agreements that have been announced. We have developed a position on the proposed changes to the way small packages are treated by customs in both markets, and we will continue to support high standards of IP protection, in which both countries have an admirable record.
And finally, we will continue to do industry or sector specific work when there is demand from members; already on the docket are projects in tech, life sciences, financial and professional services, food and drink, defense and advanced energy solutions.
It is a full program, but we have a growing team of policy experts at BAB in London and Washington, under the leadership of our Policy lead, Emanuel Adam, and are able to draw on the expertise of our members and industry trade associations when needed. And we are grateful for the guidance of our Policy Steering Cttee and sub committees, led by co-chairs, Andy Pharoah of Mars and Monica Ariño of Amazon. If you would like to get involved in this work, please let Emanuel know.
We followed our London conference with a policy briefing in Washington on Feb 11th with guest speakers including Senior Bureau Official from the US State Department, Brendan Hanrahan, UK Deputy Chief of Mission, James Roscoe and Rep. Adrian Smith, member of the house Ways and Means Cttee and chair of the trade sub-cttee. Thanks to APCO for hosting this excellent event and to Rolls-Royce North America for the sponsorship support.
At all of these events we noticed a consistent pattern of views: the US remains extremely attractive for business investors and exporters, notwithstanding the various tariffs; we see no evidence of companies ‘de-risking’ from the US. The UK still looks attractive to US investors but some sectors (like pharma) are problematic and there is a real wish from members for the UK to focus on the fundamentals of the operating environment to ensure that this relative advantage doesn’t disappear. If you are hearing something different, please let us know.
Also, while I was in DC, we announced the creation of a strategic partnership with UK business organization, The Confederation of British Industry (CBI). You can see our announcement here. Our plan is to work together on issues that can affect transatlantic trade and investment when it makes sense for both of us and our members, and the CBI joins our existing partnerships with the British Chambers of Commerce and the US Chamber of Commerce for whom we are the UK affiliate.
And finally, as many of you travel frequently between the US and UK we want to share the latest advice from the UK government about entry requirements as the rules are changing from Feb 26th. You can see our latest update for members here.
As ever, there is a lot going on and we are always ready to talk; if you have views and comments about our work, just get in touch.
All good wishes
Duncan
P.S. You may also have seen the recent Supreme Court ruling on tariffs. We have set out our response here and will be organizing a briefing call for members and friends of BAB next week.