The Exporters' Club assures that structural changes for COVID-19 can benefit Spain

The Spanish Exporters and Investors Club claims that Spain can take advantage of the structural changes that COVID-19 has introduced in international trade; in particular, it could experience a boost in the field of international business services and benefit from a greater weight of national production of strategic products in which foreign dependence is excessive.

This is the opinion of the Committee for Reflection on Internationalisation, which, in a technical report drawn up by Professor Asier Minondo of the Deusto Business School, states that the huge experiment in remote working that COVID-19 has entailed will, in the medium and long term, lead to an improvement in the competitiveness of foreign companies compared to domestic ones and will favour a significant increase in international trade in business services. 

"Spain has an opportunity to increase its exports of business services thanks to the greater willingness of companies to buy services online. This increase will also help to soften the negative impact that the slow recovery of tourism revenues has had on the trade balance," says Professor Asier Minondo. 

This probable advance of Spain in international trade in services would be favoured by the good position of Spanish companies in this segment. In fact, in the period 2013-2019, exports of other business services grew by 7.5% annually in Spain, a higher percentage than that achieved for services as a whole (6.2%) and goods (3.6%).

Moreover, in this period, Spain gained market share in the international market for business services exports.
On the other hand, the relocation of value chains to geographically closer points, with the consequent reduction in transport costs and a greater capacity for companies to react to changes in demand, could also benefit Spain, as it has competitive wages, a skilled workforce and good infrastructures. 

"The measures to tackle dependency that are being articulated at EU level are likely to increase trade in strategic products between EU member countries and raise the weight of this region in Spain's international trade," says Minondo.

In the new context for international trade created by the pandemic, the document of the Committee for Reflection on Internationalisation recommends that when designing their internationalisation plans, companies should prioritise, as fundamental aspects, having qualified workers and choosing the destination and the service in which they are most competitive, above factors such as size. 

It also considers it important that EU trade policy continues to promote regional agreements that reduce regulatory barriers to the international supply of services. 

Finally, he warns the EU authorities that in designing their policies to promote strategic technologies and reduce vulnerability in certain sectors, they should not repeat sectoral bets in all countries. "Each EU country should specialise in those sectors or stages of the production process in which it already has a high degree of competitiveness. And in the case of Spain, there are clear advantages in the pharmaceutical and renewable energy sectors," says Minondo.