A Trade Strategy for the UK’s Tech Future: What It Means for Our Sector

The UK Government’s new trade strategy represents a critical evolution in how Britain understands and promotes its economy globally. For the first time, it explicitly centres digital services, transformative technologies, and innovation-led growth—a vision that closely reflects many of the core policy recommendations outlined in techUK’s “Enabling Growth and Resilience” report, especially under Pillar 3 (Accelerating Growth Through Trade) and Pillar 4 (Strengthening International Development and Cooperation).

New Trade Defence Tools Signal Strategic Shift in Economic Security

One of the most notable additions in this strategy is the announcement of new trade defence instruments, including an anti-coercion mechanism designed to protect the UK’s economic resilience and respond to external pressures. This marks a significant evolution in the UK’s approach to trade defence, signaling a more proactive stance on economic security.

Importantly, the anti-coercion approach is expected to be heavily services-focused - recognising that threats to the UK economy are increasingly targeted at its high-value services exports, including digital and tech-related sectors. Given the complexity and scope of potential measures, consultation with industry will be crucial to ensuring these tools are proportionate, effective, and aligned with commercial realities.

While the government’s commitment to act quickly in operationalising these tools is understandable, it is vital that speed does not come at the expense of transparency or due process. A clear framework for stakeholder input, cross-government coordination, and international alignment - particularly with close partners and allies - will be essential to maintaining business confidence and avoiding unintended consequences for exporters.

Putting Services and Tech at the Core of Trade Policy

The strategy opens with a crucial and overdue recognition: the UK is a services-first economy, with more than 80% of GDP derived from services - many of them digital, platform-based or powered by tech infrastructure. This central acknowledgement aligns squarely with Pillar 3 of our January report, which called for a UK trade policy that reflects the modern structure of the economy and the digital nature of UK exports.

The strategy’s commitment to ensuring trade deals support digitally delivered services, professional mobility, and cross-border data flows is a direct response to this need. In doing so, it provides a foundation for stronger digital market access, reflecting techUK’s emphasis on services liberalisation, digital provisions in FTAs, and mutual recognition of professional qualifications as key to tech growth.

Backing High-Growth Emerging Tech Sectors

The strategy includes a concerted focus on emerging technologies such as AI, quantum computing, advanced communications and semiconductors. techUK’s January recommendation under Pillar 3 that the UK “lead the charge for AI and quantum in trade” by embedding these technologies into agreements and investment frameworks is a great addition to this prioritization.

The government’s commitment to championing digital-first growth, supporting research-intensive sectors, and pursuing standards leadership in AI mirrors our call for the UK to shape the global regulatory environment in a way that supports innovation. These efforts are vital to realising the UK’s ambitions as a science and tech superpower.

Aligning with Strategic Partners and Enhancing International Cooperation

The strategy’s bilateral priorities - particularly its emphasis on deepening tech collaboration with the US, EU, China, and major Asia-Pacific markets - reflect techUK’s recommendation to “re-establish better trading relationships” with both traditional and emerging partners.

The focus on digital trade diplomacy with the US, including AI and data partnerships, mirrors our own calls for a UK-US Digital Trade Agreement. Equally, the recognition of the importance of stable UK-EU cooperation on data adequacy, standards and digital regulation echoes techUK’s emphasis on repairing and deepening the UK’s relationship with the EU as a cornerstone for future growth.

Meanwhile, the strategy’s engagement with countries like Korea, GCC states, Switzerland and Turkey - with digital and tech as central themes - directly advances Pillar 4 of techUK’s report, which calls for enhanced international cooperation and the negotiation of targeted technology partnerships.

Championing Multilateralism and Rule-Based Digital Trade

The government’s commitment to the WTO and its support for initiatives like the Joint Statement Initiative on E-commerce reflect techUK’s call for the UK to step up as a global trade leader, particularly around digital rule-making and multilateral cooperation.

Just as we highlighted the UK’s role in pushing for digital trade rules that cover AI, cross-border data flows, and source code protections, the strategy commits the UK to shaping these very frameworks. It also reinforces our call to join the MPIA to ensure fair enforcement for tech companies operating globally.

Trade Agreements for the Digital Economy

The UK’s accession to the CPTPP and its continued negotiation of digital trade agreements (DTAs) mirror our long-standing recommendations to prioritise digitally focused FTAs and DTAs with high-value, like-minded markets. The UK’s leadership in striking DTAs with Singapore and Ukraine is noted as a success in the strategy, and techUK is pleased to see the government’s intention to expand these efforts - a clear reflection of our Pillar 3 recommendation to “negotiate and sign more digital trade agreements”.

The commitment to regulatory recognition and international standards cooperation is another reflection from our positioning, as is the recognition that data localisation requirements must be avoided to maintain open digital trade flows.

Export Support that Works for Tech Businesses

One of the most practical improvements in the strategy is the investment in a digital-first export service, something techUK has consistently advocated for. The introduction of the Ricardo Fund and increased funding for UK Export Finance (UKEF) also align directly with our calls for better support for SMEs and innovation-driven exporters.

Our January report emphasised the need to improve the implementation and promotion of FTAs to ensure businesses can actually use them. The strategy makes strides in this direction, pledging more accessible services, better guidance, and enhanced commercial diplomacy to help firms win deals abroad.

Yet, the ability of UK exporters to actually use the trade agreements in place remains a sticking point. FTAs are often underutilised because businesses struggle to navigate their complexity. Without clearer guidance and more proactive outreach from government, even the best agreements risk sitting unused.

Building Digital Trust through Regulation and Cyber

The strategy also recognises the importance of cybersecurity, responsible AI, and trusted data flows to maintaining the UK’s leadership in global tech - themes core to our Pillar 4 recommendation that the UK grow its leadership in international tech governance.

However, as we outline in the final section below, these efforts could go further.

What’s Still Missing — and Where More Can Be Done

Despite its strengths, the strategy leaves important questions unanswered - particularly around government capacity, coordination, and the practical delivery of policy. Here are five areas that techUK believes need further attention:

While the strategy rightly prioritises overseas networks, it doesn’t sufficiently address the need to professionalise the Civil Service and invest in in-house expertise across DBT, DSIT, the FCDO, and the Catapult Network. As we argued in our report, this is essential to ensuring effective, responsive trade policy - and is the enabler of every other recommendation in the strategy.

A persistent issue for UK trade and tech policy is the lack of coordination across departments. For tech businesses, where trade policy intersects with digital regulation, national security, and industrial strategy, coherence is essential. The current siloed approach - where trade, data, and cybersecurity policies are developed in isolation - risks undermining the UK’s broader strategic objectives. That’s why techUK has called for a Cross-Departmental International Technology Task Force - to align trade, security, industrial, and digital strategies and to ensure domestic laws support, rather than contradict, trade ambitions.

The strategy outlines new trade defence tools but doesn’t explain how they’ll align with partner countries’ policies. To avoid damaging subsidy races or duplicative interventions, the UK should pursue coordinated economic security agreements, particularly around supply chains in areas like semiconductors and critical minerals.

Cybersecurity is a vital enabler of digital trade, and we were pleased to see it mentioned. But the UK must go further: taking a tech-first approach to cyber resilience, embedding AI-enabled cyber defence in regulation, and updating frameworks like the Cyber Assurance Framework to reflect new threat environments. For a country that wants to lead on digital trust, the UK must go beyond rhetoric and embed public-private collaboration into its cyber frameworks. Without a robust and future-proofed approach to cyber, the credibility of the UK’s digital trade offer is at stake.

Finally, while export controls are necessary, the strategy lacks detail on how these will be coordinated internationally and made practical for businesses. We reiterate our call for early consultation with industry, alignment with allies, and the automatic extension of Open General Export Licences (OGELs) to FTA partner countries.

Conclusion: A Strong Start - But Much Still to Do

This trade strategy reflects a modern understanding of the UK economy and closely tracks many of techUK’s core recommendations. It sets out a clear path for supporting UK technology on the global stage, especially through digital trade, regulatory alignment, and smart market access strategies.

But ambition alone isn’t enough. Little detail is given in this strategy around delivery and implementation.

To deliver this strategy effectively, the government must invest in its own capabilities, coordinate across departments, and co-create solutions with industry. It must also deliver on the commitment to provide clear KPIs on how the government will holds itself to account in following this strategy.

Businesses need practical detail, joined-up governance, and international alignment to take advantage of these opportunities.

techUK looks forward to partnering with government to turn this strategy into sustained growth, real resilience, and global leadership for the UK’s tech sector.

techUK International Policy and Trade Programme activities

techUK supports members with their international trade plans and aspirations. We help members to understand market opportunities, tackle market access barriers, and build partnerships in their target market. Visit the programme page here.