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No-Deal Brexit Seen as “Catastrophic” to British Auto Industry
Damage to the British auto industry will be “catastrophic” if the U.K. leaves the European Union next spring with no trade deal, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders warns.
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Damage to the British auto industry will be “catastrophic” if the U.K. leaves the European Union next spring with no trade deal, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders warns.
SMMT backs Prime Minister Theresa May’s compromise Brexit plan, because it includes a transition period in which to negotiate a “frictionless” trade pact with the EU. “Nothing else will do,” CEO Mike Hawes declared at SMMT’s annual dinner last night.
A survey of SMMT members shows that 91% see no positive outcome of a “hard” Brexit, the Financial Times reports. Such an outcome would leave the auto industry with no prospect of protecting the barrier-free, just-in-time supply chain it currently enjoys with the EU.
One-third of respondents to the SMMT poll say they have canceled or postponed investment in the U.K. One in four report they have expanded overseas facilities to absorb work that would have gone to their operations in the U.K. One in 10 have already begun moving some of their British operations to other countries.
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