Tim says firms that make preparations now will be in a prime position to increase their export market because they are ahead of the game.

Legislation includes everything from Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) through to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) on the packaging of products.

Tim has created an easy-to-use international trade healthcheck for businesses to identify growth opportunities but also to weed out any potential compliance issues based on the new legislation.

He said: “I am speaking to businesses who export on a daily basis and knowledge of the legislation is mixed.

“I would say the vast majority know that changes are coming but haven’t prepared yet and the risk is seeing costs go up overnight without any mitigation especially with regulations such as CBAM.

“The changes to packaging regulations will mean that empty space in a package must be minimised, for example, and there also rules coming around deforestation that means a seller of coffee, for example, will need paperwork detailing how and where their product was grown.

“In total, there are 15 pieces of legislation – that are either already live or set to go live in the next few years – and you can’t really blame businesses for feeling slightly overwhelmed by it all!

“Of course, bigger companies will have whole departments dealing with this but we recognise that small and medium-sized businesses that export need support.

“That’s why we’ve created our free healthcheck that will help to identify fresh opportunities and threats. Businesses that trade overseas tend to grow more quickly, have better processes in place and have a stronger survival rate.

“So, we don’t want new regulations to put anyone off but we have to make sure that we are informing businesses of what’s coming down the track and advise on what to do next.

“Once the healthcheck is complete, we’ll make key recommendations to the business on what next steps they can take to not only make sure they are compliant but to help them grow too.

“Those firms who get this right early are going to be in the best position to take advantage of fresh opportunities overseas.”

The free healthcheck can be accessed here: International Trade Health Check