Political Risks will continue to have impact on cross border trade

4th October 2011, Stockholm: Nick Robson, Head of Credit, Political & Security Risk, JLT Specialty Limited (JLT), warned during his 'The Headache of Export Compliance' presentation at the FERMA Risk management Forum 2011, that politics are exerting ever greater influence over cross border trade and this influence will continue.

"Recent events in the Ivory Coast, Egypt and Libya have highlighted the growing risk issues around cross border trading. Many businesses are more than aware of the physical and more obvious risks in this area, but are less familiar with the potential for interruption caused by politically driven regulation including sanctions, arising from multiple multilateral, national, regional and domestic sources. It is this increasing propensity to see politically driven regulation that may directly or indirectly impact upon trading partners and the advisers to such partners, which can create a real headache for business. Of course it can also create real opportunity for those businesses who understand the regulation and can work effectively with it.

"There may be a misconception that this is a short term problem, or something that only politically sensitive industries, such as defense, need to be concerned about. However, these issues are if anything accelerating and the concept of 'political sensitivity' may be applied widely to many industries today.

"Whilst understanding the component parts of these cross border risks is challenging, it is possible and this understanding will be key to successful trade in the current and future international business environment. There is also a well established insurance market that can underwrite risk associated with international trade, which together with appropriate risk analysis provides many businesses with the security and confidence to realize trading opportunities in the challenging environment we operate in today".

ENDS

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Isabella Young 
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