Transitional European Union deal called for by Carmakers
A transitional Brexit deal to protect the future of the UK car industry, a trade group has said.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) say Britain was highly unlikely to reach a last agreement with the EU in the March 2019 time limit.
That meant carmakers could face a “cliff edge”, whereby tax free trade was piercingly pulled away.
The European Union is by far the United Kingdom’s largest automotive export market; trade more than half of its ended vehicles four times as many as the next largest market.
UK car plants also depend heavily on the free movement of components to and from the continent.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said any new relationship with the European Union would need to spoke to tax and non tariff barriers, regulatory and labour issues, “all of which will take time to negotiate”.
“We accept that we are leaving the European Union,” said chief executive Mike Hawes.
“But our biggest fear is that, in two years’ time, we fall off a cliff edge no deal, outside the single market and customs union and trading on inferior World Trade Organization terms.”This would undermine our competitiveness and our ability to attract the investment that is critical to future growth.”
He called on the government to look for a transactional arrangement, whereby the UK stay in the single market and customs union until a new relationship was brokered.
UK car manufacturing generates £77.5billion of turnover last year and accounted for 12% of all goods exports, according to the trade group.
It added that almost a million people were employed across the wider automotive industry.
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