On 9 September 2026, the 10th UK-U.S. SME Dialogue was held in Cardiff, Wales with over 80 UK and U.S. small and medium-sized businesses and business organisations participating.
The Dialogue is convened by the UK Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The event opened with remarks from Graham Floater, UK Director of US Strategy and Negotiations, BIST and Bryant Trick, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East, USTR who have negotiated the UK-U.S. Economic Prosperity Deal. Additional comments were provided by Bradley McKinney, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Commercial Service, International Trade Administration and Tom Taylor, Deputy Director, Wales, BIST, who spoke about the strength of the UK-U.S. relationship and the important role SMEs play in driving trade, investment and growth.
SMEs are central to the UK-U.S. trading relationship, and the Dialogue reflects the ongoing commitment from both countries to supporting and enhancing UK-U.S. SME trade. This follows the series of major trade deals negotiated under the UK-U.S. Economic Prosperity Deal that has supported key industries with hundreds of thousands of jobs across the United Kingdom. In 2025, the UK-U.S. trade relationship was worth £332 billion, with £1.2 trillion invested in each other’s economies at the end of 2024.
During the Dialogue, attendees discussed the opportunities and obstacles to SME trade, SMEs and the future of manufacturing, strengthening SME innovation in the digital and AI sectors, and UK-U.S. SME supply chains and investment.
Wales is a nation of innovation, creativity, and enterprise, with world-leading strengths in advanced manufacturing capability in aerospace and defence, home to the world’s first compound semiconductors cluster, pioneering life sciences, renewable energy, and the creative industries, making it one of the most exciting places in the UK to do business and trade internationally.
We know that SMEs play a huge part in spurring local economies. That’s why we are committed to working together to forge closer trade and investment ties with the U.S. and taking practical steps to enable our two countries to do business with each other more easily.
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