I mean Government support, where it is available. There is a good deal that Government can do. For example, there are a number of Scottish Government officials based around the world, some of whom have teamed up with the Department for International Trade. Those teams being able to help exporters to understand particular issues in those markets is really useful—companies do not have to find that information themselves. Accelerating a company’s in-market knowledge can be helpful, as can support on the trade-promotion side.
Support is also important on the trade-policy side, and will become increasingly so as we go through Brexit and come out the other side. We currently use the European Commission to help us to tackle trade barriers and issues that arise in-market. As I said earlier, those can be tariff barriers or regulatory barriers. We do not need trade agreements to solve those problems, although such agreements can be helpful. Issues can be resolved outside trade agreements, sometimes sector by sector.
However, in-market knowledge and expertise in how that can be done are really important, and as we look ahead to Brexit and beyond, that issue will be important for the whisky industry. Normally, we go to EU delegation offices with such issues, so we will need to know where we should go in the future.
There are also issues for us around intellectual property. As you know, Scotch whisky is a geographical indication, as are other products in the Scottish food and drink industry. That indication is important for the value of those products when they are exported, because it prevents products from becoming generic. Where such issues arise, in-market support will be useful.