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The Role of the Export Manager in Real Trade

28 September 2026 by Gerald Bratley MCIEx

International Trade is a Chain of Events, not a Single Task

International trade involves many skills and disciplines, beginning with identifying potential markets, researching them and developing sales opportunities. See the Three Golden Steps for more information.

The title Export Manager can describe two quite different roles. In a large organisation, the Export Manager may supervise a department employing specialists in sales, marketing, packing, documentation, shipping, finance and legal matters etc. Much of the manager’s responsibility involves coordinating the work of those departments.

In a smaller company, however, the Export Manager may have to undertake many of these activities personally, calling upon outside specialists and subcontractors when required.

This article concentrates on the second type: the experienced Export Manager who possesses sufficient practical knowledge across multiple disciplines to manage an international transaction from the initial enquiry through to final payment.

What Is a Back to Back Letter of Credit?

26 September 2026 by Gerald Bratley MCIEx

A buyer in one country wants machinery, materials or consumer goods. The supplier is elsewhere, but an intermediary has found the opportunity and does not want the buyer and supplier simply to deal directly. The question, then, is what is a back to back letter of credit? It is a banking arrangement designed for precisely this sort of transaction, though it is more demanding and less routine than the phrase may suggest.

In simple terms, an intermediary receives a letter of credit from the ultimate buyer and uses it as security to persuade a bank to issue a second letter of credit in favour of the actual supplier. There are therefore two separate credits, linked commercially but not identical in legal effect. One supports the sale to the buyer; the other supports the intermediary’s purchase from the supplier.

This device has long had a place in international trade, particularly where merchants, agents and specialist traders add genuine value through market knowledge, finance, inspection or consolidation. It is not a substitute for sound credit judgement, accurate documents or a viable contract. Indeed, it makes each of those matters more significant.

A Guide to Postwar British Industry and Change

25 September 2026 by Gerald Bratley MCIEx

Britain emerged from the Second World War victorious but economically exhausted. Any useful guide to postwar British industry must begin with that uncomfortable fact. The country retained great engineering capacity, skilled labour and established overseas commercial connections, yet it also carried worn-out plant, heavy debts, rationing and an urgent need to earn foreign currency. The subsequent story is not simply one of industrial decline. It is a record of recovery, innovation, missed opportunities and difficult choices made under pressures that are easily forgotten.

Transferable and Divisible L/Cs Explained

24 September 2026 by Gerald Bratley MCIEx

A letter of credit can make an overseas sale bankable, but only when its terms match the way the goods are actually bought, supplied and shipped. “Transferable and divisible L/Cs explained” is therefore not merely a banking question. It concerns the practical relationship between buyer, exporter, supplier and bank – and the point at which an intermediary may be paid without exposing either party to an unnecessary risk.

The terminology is often used loosely. A transferable credit has a precise meaning under the rules normally governing documentary credits. A divisible credit, by contrast, is not generally a formal category in the same sense. People may mean that the credit can be split between suppliers, that partial shipments are permitted, or that the proceeds may be shared. Those are different arrangements, with different consequences.

Back in the 1970s, I built a business using transferable and divisible letters of credit to assemble package deals for major contractors throughout the Middle East. These included projects such as Doha General Hospital, Salmaniya Medical Centre, the Kuwait Water Towers and the Aqaba Holiday Inn, along with numerous others across the region. The contractor placed a single order with my company, and I brought together products from numerous manufacturers, arranging for them to be shipped as one consignment. Without these two ingenious banking arrangements, I simply would not have had the financial resources to undertake such contracts. They enabled a small export merchant with limited capital to compete for substantial international business that would otherwise have been beyond his reach.

Gerald’s Weekly International Trade Briefing

23 September 2026 by Gerald Bratley MCIEx

Practical developments for UK exporters and SMEs

The Future of British Manufacturing Depends on Scale

23 September 2026 by Gerald Bratley MCIEx

A factory does not become internationally competitive because a minister visits it in a hard hat, or because a press release describes its work as innovative. It does so through years of capital expenditure, skilled supervision, reliable suppliers, disciplined quality control and customers prepared to place repeat orders. The future of British manufacturing will be decided by these unglamorous realities as much as by artificial intelligence, electric vehicles or any other fashionable label.

Britain still makes far more than public discussion sometimes suggests. It produces advanced machinery, pharmaceuticals, aerospace components, specialist chemicals, food, medical equipment, defence systems and highly engineered products sold into demanding markets. Yet the sector is too often discussed either nostalgically, as though its best years are irretrievably behind it, or optimistically, as though a handful of start-ups can replace the industrial base that has been allowed to thin out.

Neither view is adequate. Britain can remain a serious manufacturing nation, but only if it treats manufacturing as a long-term national capability rather than a convenient political slogan.

What a Register of International Trade Experts Misses

22 September 2026 by Gerald Bratley MCIEx

A register of international trade experts sounds, at first hearing, like an obvious public service. A British firm facing its first overseas order ought surely to be able to find somebody qualified to help. Yet the phrase conceals a difficulty that has repeatedly defeated well-meaning export support schemes: international trade is not one profession. It is a chain of separate disciplines, and a weak link in any one of them can turn a promising sale into an expensive failure.

This was one of the central flaws in the Government’s Export Adviser Scheme. It treated experience in exporting as though it were a general competence that could be listed, matched and supplied. Some advisers were undoubtedly capable people. The problem was structural. A person who had sold industrial equipment successfully might know little about marine insurance; a banker who understood letters of credit might have no useful knowledge of selecting distributors; a lawyer might be excellent on contracts but unable to judge whether a consignment had been packed suitably for a tropical port.

The exporter did not need an impressive title. He needed the right judgement at the right moment.

Why Exporters Struggle: Risks Behind the Sale

19 September 2026 by Gerald Bratley MCIEx

An export order can look profitable on the day it is signed and become a loss long before the goods reach their destination. This is why exporters struggle: selling abroad is not simply domestic selling with a longer delivery route. It is a chain of promises involving a buyer, banks, freight operators, insurers, officials and often agents, any one of whom can delay, alter or frustrate the transaction.

For much of my working life, export success depended less on enthusiasm for overseas markets than on patience, judgement and a willingness to ask awkward questions before accepting an order. The questions were practical. Who will pay? Under which law? Can the goods be cleared? Is the documentation exact? What happens if the issuing bank cannot honour its obligation? These matters are less glamorous than winning business, but they decide whether the business was worth winning.

Disciplines Involved in International Trade

18 September 2026 by Gerald Bratley MCIEx

A container may leave a British port carrying perfectly good machinery, food or components, yet the exporter can still lose money long before it reaches its destination. The disciplines involved in international trade extend far beyond finding a customer and arranging transport. They determine whether the seller is paid, whether the goods clear customs, whether the contract means what both parties think it means, and whether a promising overseas relationship survives its first difficulty.

That is why international trade has never been a single profession. It is a meeting place for commercial judgement, law, banking, transport, technical knowledge and human understanding. Digital systems have altered the speed of communication, but they have not removed the underlying risks. Indeed, a quicker transaction can expose poor preparation more rapidly.

Trading with India: Why Six HS Digits May Not Be Enough

17 September 2026 by Gerald Bratley MCIEx

Most exporters are familiar with the Harmonized System (HS), the international system used to classify goods. The first six digits are internationally standardised, so a product can be recognised under essentially the same HS classification worldwide. India, however, takes the system two digits further. India uses the eight-digit ITC (HS) — Indian Trade Classification based … Read more