The fifth edition of International Trade Week (ITW) starts next week.
Lasting from 3-7 November, ITW 2025 offers five days of free online and in-person events, aimed at the trade community and designed to help UK businesses grow through exporting.
Created and hosted by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), ITW’s schedule is packed full of expert-led webinars, networking opportunities and insights into global markets.
Skills and special procedures
During the week, the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade is hosting a webinar with Customs4trade, exploring how returned goods relief and temporary admissions can help businesses’ cashflow.
The webinar introduces these two important special procedures and gives practical tips on how best to use them.
The webinar is being held on 5 November at 2pm. You can sign up, here.
“International Trade Week 2025 provides an opportunity to explore where new opportunities may lie for your business to grow internationally,” said the Chartered Institute’s UK public affairs lead, Grace Thompson.
Within the Chartered Institute’s Mentoring Matters series, Thompson will also be hosting a conversation with Rob Nitsch, CEO of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, on 4 November at 12pm.
“We’re going to be looking at recent government announcements on skills policy and how training and mentoring can bolster business resilience,” said Thompson.
The new standard for excellence
Also during ITW 2025, the Chartered Institute is launching its new standard for industry excellence: the Approved Customs Practitioner standard.
The Approved Customs Practitioner standard is recognition from the Chartered Institute that a customs professional meets or exceeds industry standards.
It’s a way to demonstrate commitment to the highest ethnical standards and to have your skills and knowledge officially verified.
“ITW is only made possible by the hard work and professionalism of customs practitioners in the UK and abroad,” Thompson added.
“This is why we are choosing ITW 2025 to launch the standard, our new benchmark for customs excellence, and provide a platform for customs practitioners to demonstrate their commitment to professionalism.”
New and future trade deals
Other events at ITW include a focus on important markets that have received new or updated trade agreements within the last two years.
Online sessions held on recent trade deals, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Transpacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the UK-India trade agreement, are being hosted throughout the week.
Many of these sessions focus on specific sectors that could benefit from each deal, such as agri-tech and the CPTPP, temporary entry to Vietnam or government procurement in India.
DBT is also holding a series of in-person events, including roadshows throughout the UK’s nations and regions and a session where UK Trade Envoys talk about the support on offer to Welsh businesses.
You can see the full programme here.
