The Brits are back in Seattle

After three and a half years of leading the British Embassy in Washington’s trade policy and business affairs team, I’ve taken up a new assignment.

Still in the US, happily, and a lot closer to the mountains. Still has “Washington” in the address. Still working on prosperity, trade and investment. But on the other side of the country. Yep – Washington State, the 42nd state of the Union. You could hardly be further west from the UK and still be in the contiguous US.

I’m here as the Consul (Business and Government Affairs) at the newly created UK Government Office which we opened this week. I’m part of our mission to help drive up trade, investment, and collaboration in science, innovation and research, between the UK and Washington State.

My family and I landed here in the middle of the month, my first week on the job is drawing to a close, and we feel it’s great to be here. Everyone I’ve met in Seattle and its surroundings has been very welcoming. The weather is, er, familiar, but arguably still dryer than the western parts of the British Isles. We’ve had some fantastically sunny days too in the mix. And we’re lucky to have left the other Washington (DC, that is) just before the cold front and snow hit there.

Officially, mine is the first full-time UK presence since 2006. That is entirely true. But don’t overlook the other ways that Britain is already part of the Evergreen State’s tapestry. Just look at the high-level trade and investment statistics, like the 13,300 jobs supported by UK companies investing here; or that the UK is the second largest foreign employer in the state, and the fourth largest investor.

Washington State is the US’s fourth largest exporting state, so it’s significant that Britain is Washington State’s largest export market in Europe. We imported $2bn in goods from here in 2011. Exports from Boeing’s Everett facility will have contributed to some of that, perhaps fitted with Rolls Royce engines and other British technology.

Several Washington-State based companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, PACCAR, Costco, Esterline, Boeing and Starbucks all have a strong presence in the UK too, creating jobs and prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic.

At the more personal level, there’s Robert Cremin who has been Britain’s Honorary Consul in the absence of a permanent office. And the British American Business Council of the Pacific Northwest. Or the impact that British companies like Caterham kit sports cars are having – see this article from this Sunday’s Seattle Times.

Perhaps the appetite for British food (the British Pantry in Redmond, that my children’s teacher told me about). Even the signs for the Hendrix in London exhibition and the forthcoming Kenwood House exhibition that the Seattle Art Museum is opening this month.

On a light-hearted note, some elements of the political debates appear to have a different focus. In Britain – and in Europe – the UK Government is striving to cut regulation and lighten its burden on business. Here, the newspapers are following with intense interest the debate about adding regulation – to implement the result of the state’s vote in November to decriminalise marijuana.

It’s a curious one to watch – but had nothing to do with our decision to come and live here! But I am hoping to encourage another high – shared prosperity and economic growth, and a higher profile for Britain in Seattle.