Supporting UK-US business and the transatlantic relationship took the center stage during Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald's visit to New York on November 3-4.

At the BritishAmerican Business (BAB) Transatlantic Awards dinner, Ambassador Sheinwald presented Tom Glocer, CEO of Thomson Reuters, with the BAB US Transatlantic Business Award for 2009. The Ambassador called Glocer "the epitome of the New York-London brand of British American business leadership." The UK award went to Peter Sands of Standard Chartered plc and was presented by Ambassador Louis Susman, US Ambassador to the UK.

Before presenting the award, Ambassador Sheinwald stressed the importance of trade between both the US and UK and the US and Europe. He said, "US-EU investment totals 54 percent of the world's GDP... The US is the No. 1 investor in the UK. In the last fiscal year alone, there were 621 new US investment projects in the UK, which created nearly 13,000 jobs and amounted to 36% of total inward investment to Britain."

He also called on countries to "face down the protectionists and have the courage to complete the Doha Round of international trade negotiations. And, we must work to secure a global agreement at Copenhagen to combat climate change in order to ensure that our future growth is sustainable."

In addition to the dinner, Ambassador Sheinwald and Ambassador Susman participated in BAB's "Ambassadorial briefing." In a discussion moderated by the Financial Times' Chrystia Freeland, the two discussed the most pressing issues of the day including the economy, climate change, Afghanistan/Pakistan and Iran.

Read Ambassador Sheinwald's entire speech
Read Ambassador Sheinwald's latest blog on transatlantic business 

Ambassador Sheinwald also congratulated the entire BritishAmerican Business team on the tremendous success of the annual dinner, a unique event in the New York business calendar, and one unmatched by any other country, which this year drew a record crowd of senior executives from both sides of the Atlantic.