6 . Glasgow Business May/June 2014


Glasgow Chamber meets a big challenge


»An export problem was solved by Glasgow Chamber team


G


lasgow Chamber of Commerce’s documentation team provides help with shipping all sorts of goods overseas but they handled


one request recently that was really out of the ordinary. It was for a puppet called, appropriately


enough, Big Man Walking, which stands eight metres or 26 feet tall and which takes a team of 10 puppeteers to operate. Its owners Vision Mechanics were shipping


Big Man Walking to Norway to take part in the 2014 Stamsund Teatre Festival, one of the


Constitutional question Chamber steps up referendum debate


Glasgow Chamber’s exploration of the referendum issue has entered into a new phase with the posting of detailed answers from each side in the debate on its website. The work follows the


Constitution Committee seeking answers from the Better Together and Yes Scotland campaigns and the major political parties on 11 issues that will impact significantly on the economy of the West of Scotland.


Stuart Patrick, Chief Executive


of Glasgow Chamber, has begun to write a series of weekly blogs on some of the key economic issues and questions remaining following the answers provided. Glasgow Chamber’s own work


on this follows work by the wider Chambers of Commerce network. A survey by Scottish Chambers of


Commerce found a narrow majority of businesses (53 per cent) see


opportunities in independence, but that needs to be balanced by the more than three quarters (77 per cent) identifying risks. Stuart Patrick said: “The Scottish Chambers survey showed that the currency issue is still prominent with the vast majority of businesses wanting to see a single currency if independence does go ahead, but it’s fair to say that it’s far from a certainty that this will be offered.”


Another survey conducted


by the British Chambers of Commerce showed that the vast majority of businesses in the rest of the UK want Scotland to remain in the Union.


largest performing arts festivals in Norway. Te fact that the giant puppet was only


going to be in the Scandinavian country for a short time and then return home meant that Vision Mechanics applied for an ATA Carnet, a kind of ‘short-term passport’ for the short stay. You can use an ATA Carnet to temporarily


export goods if a country is part of the Carnet Convention. Te Carnet allows goods to be exported temporarily and then to be readmited duty free to the importer provided the goods are returned to the UK. Cathy Bryson, Head of International


Big Man Walking (© Murdo Macleod)


Certification at Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, said: “We deal with a lot of requests for Carnets, quite oſten from businesses taking products as samples to a trade show, but Te Big Man was certainly more than a litle out of the ordinary.”


GET INVOLVED


For more information on how to obtain an ATA Carnet, contact Glasgow Chamber on 0141 204 8390 and ask for Cathy Bryson or Lorraine Galbraith.


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