It's a year to the month since Birmingham hosted the British American Business Council (BABC) Transatlantic Conference.
The US remains the West Midlands’ biggest trading partner and a significant investor in the regional economy.
But the statistics mask the complexities of trade between the UK and the US.
Many companies trade on their “Britishness” when selling to America.
But despite the advantages we enjoy when trading across the pond, barriers and pitfalls remain.
Some sectors, for example, the food, textile, glass and ceramics industries are faced with hefty import tariffs, designed to protect and even subsidise home-grown businesses in these sectors.
Regulation can also be a barrier to trade and investment.
US products must conform to multiple technical rules relating to the environment, consumer protection and health and safety. What’s more, these have a habit of changing overnight.
The recession has underlined the need for better trading relations between our countries and others in the European Union - the US and the EU are the world’s biggest economies - and, after decades of discussion, it seems a workable transatlantic trade pact is in sight.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is currently under negotiation.
Its aim is to reduce tariffs, align regulations and standards, increase protection for overseas investors and improve access to government procurement markets.
On June 3, the BABC is running a roadshow for Midlands companies.
This will explore the challenges and opportunities of transatlantic trading, and the implications of TTIP. Mills & Reeve is hosting the event.
In the UK, an all-party parliamentary group on EU-US trade and investment has been established. It is intended that the TTIP be concluded in 2015 and we will feed in any interesting findings from the West Midlands.
Whilst improving trade with China and India is an important goal for the West Midlands, there is still much more we can do with our most dominant trading partner. Having a voice as these important negotiations progress is an important starting place.
* Steve Allen is head of the Birmingham office at national law firm Mills & Reeve
