Britain's car industry cautions: No-deal Brexit is our nightmare
31/07/2018 10:28
* Spectre of disorderly exit from EU looms in divided UK
* British car output in first half fell by 3.3 percent
* UK consumer confidence below pre-Brexit vote levels
* Britain to tell France: Please help avoid Brexit accident
*
By Andy Bruce and William James
LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - A no-deal Brexit would seriously
damage the car industry in Britain and the European Union by
raising costs and sowing chaos for carmakers and consumers
alike, the head of Britain's car industry warned on Tuesday.
With less than eight months until Britain is due to exit the
EU, Prime Minister Theresa May has yet to find a proposal to
maintain economic ties with the bloc that pleases both sides of
her divided party and is acceptable to negotiators in Brussels.
May has stepped up precautionary planning for a so-called
"no-deal" Brexit that would see the world's fifth largest
economy crash out of the EU on March 29, 2019, a step that could
spook financial markets and dislocate trade flows across Europe
and beyond.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor
Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said carmakers were
increasingly concerned about the lack of clarity around the
manner of Britain's departure from the EU.
That has raised the prospect of Britain leaving with no deal
and falling back on World Trade Organisation rules that could
leave British car exporters facing EU import tariffs of around
10 percent.
"No deal... is just not an option. It would be seriously
damaging to the industry not just in the UK but in Europe as
well," Hawes told reporters as he presented SMMT's mid-year
update on British car production. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL9N1RO00I
At stake is the future of one of Britain's few manufacturing
success stories since the 1980s - a car industry employing over
850,000 people and generating annual turnover of $110 billion.
Much of the industry is owned by foreign companies.
The world's biggest carmakers including Toyota 7203.T , BMW
BMWG.DE and Ford F.N have urged Britain to ensure that they
can import and export without hindrance after Brexit.
Supporters of Brexit admit there may be some short-term pain
for Britain's $2.9 trillion economy, but that long-term it will
prosper when cut free from the EU, which they cast as a failing
German-dominated experiment in European integration.
"NO DEAL"?
Under the current timetable, both London and Brussels hope
to get a final Brexit deal in October to give enough time to
ratify it by exit day.
However, the potential for major political upheaval remains,
with May's minority government facing a series of make-or-break
moments in the Brexit process over coming months.
She must find a way to strike a deal with the EU, which has
already rejected her preferred plan on trade, then sell that
deal to her deeply fractured Conservative Party, before putting
it to a vote in parliament.
Failure at any of those three hurdles could cost her job and
thrust the United Kingdom into crisis.
In an attempt to rally support for May's proposals, Foreign
Secretary Jeremy Hunt visits Paris and Vienna this week.
"I will be explaining to my counterparts in Paris and Vienna
that it is time for the EU to engage with our proposals, or we
potentially face the prospect of a no-deal by accident, which
would be very challenging for both the UK and EU," Hunt said.
Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn could come
under pressure at its annual party conference in September to
agree to support a referendum on any deal that May can secure,
the Guardian newspaper reported.
There is deep concern in boardrooms about the prospect of
Britain leaving the bloc without a deal, or with a deal that
would silt up the arteries of trade.
That could be highly damaging for a car industry which is
dependent on the speedy movement of huge numbers of parts across
borders. The average car, for example, has about 30,000 parts.
Confidence among British consumers and businesses remains
stuck well below levels before Britons voted in 2016 by a narrow
majority for Brexit, surveys showed on Tuesday, two days before
an expected interest rate increase by the Bank of England.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1UQ2GW
The Financial Times reported that the EU's chief negotiator,
Michel Barnier, had softened his opposition to May's Brexit plan
for financial services after the UK acknowledged Brussels would
have ultimate control over the City of London's access to EU
markets.
British car output in the first six months of 2018 fell by
an annual 3.3 percent to 834,402, with disappointing domestic
demand cancelling out strong exports, SMMT said.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
((mailto:guy.faulconbridge@thomsonreuters.com; 07825218698;))