Signatory: SWA chief Karen Betts (pic: Terry Murden)

Businesses from across the economy are demanding the Prime Minister shows leadership and secures a Brexit deal.

The CBI and 71 trade associations and professional bodies say that “with compromise and tenacity, a deal can be done”.

They have issued a statement on behalf of 190,000 businesses and seven million employees following Boris Johnson’s declaration that talks with the EU are ‘over’.

But business groups insist that a deal is essential to bring stability and confidence in the UK as a place in which to invest, and help ease the sustainable implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Among signatories to the statement are Karen Betts, CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association, Helen Dickinson, CEO of the British Retail Consortium, and Deidre Michie, chief executive of Oil and Gas UK.

The statement says: “Now is the time for historic political leadership. With compromise and tenacity, a deal can be done. Businesses call on leaders on both sides to find a route through.

“The clarity that comes with an ambitious deal will have an instant impact on firms’ efforts to prepare. It will help investment by removing the threat of tariffs and quotas.

“And it will catalyze confidence through enhanced customs cooperation while making a precious data agreement possible, vital for services industries which make up 80% of the UK economy.

“Businesses are doing what they can to prepare for Brexit. But firms face a hat-trick of unprecedented challenges: rebuilding from the first wave of COVID-19, dealing with the second, and uncertainty over the UK’s trading relationship with the EU.

“That’s why more than three-quarters of UK firms say they need a deal, quickly.

“With each day that passes, business resilience is chipped away. A swift deal is the single most effective way to support recovery in communities across Europe.

“After four years of debate, there must be a resolution. 2021 can then be a year to rebuild, rather than regret.”

Source: https://dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2020/10/business-groups-demand-brexit-deal-compromise/

The post Business groups demand Brexit deal compromise first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Prospects of an agreement between the EU and the UK that would prevent a chaotic British exit from the bloc appear increasingly dim, as talks between the two sides reach an impasse and European leaders express doubts about striking a deal in time before the October 31 deadline.

As politicians seem unable to reach an acceptable accord, concerns mount in the business world that a disorderly British departure could wreak havoc on firms on both sides of the English Channel, causing job losses and damaging supply chain relationships cultivated over decades.

Read more: Another brick in the wall? The downside of Britain’s jobs boom

“A disorderly Brexit seems more likely than ever,” Holger Bingmann, president of the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade, and Services (BGA), told Germany’s Rheinische Post newspaper on Monday.

He warned that a hard Brexit would have “catastrophic consequences” for Germany’s exporters, pointing out that they would face “immense additional costs” in terms of customs and the bureaucracy of logistics, transportation, data protection, and taxes.

Brexit has cast its shadow on UK-Germany trade for the past couple of years, Bingmann said. The expert noted that in the first half of this year alone, German exporters to the UK incurred losses worth over €3.5 billion ($3.85 billion) on account of Brexit-related negative effects.

The true extent of the damage to bilateral commerce is likely to be “much greater and will only become visible in a few months,” he said, as many firms have just replenished their stocks in the UK to prevent disruptions to the supply chain in the coming months.

Repeated warnings

Businesses and industry groups in both the UK and continental Europe have repeatedly warned about the potential adverse impact of a chaotic Brexit.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said in September that the prospect of a no-deal Brexit is damaging business confidence. According to the lobby group, British firms are diverting billions of pounds from productive investment to preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit.

“Until a deal is agreed, companies will continue to divert billions of pounds from productive investment to no-deal preparations, and international investors will continue to question if the UK is a stable, open place to do business,” CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn said.

CBI said British firms remain concerned about the ongoing political uncertainty in the UK.

German business groups say the Brexit withdrawal agreement, negotiated by UK PM Boris Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May, should not be renegotiated.

“We’ve spent a lot of money on the issue of Brexit. Instead, we should prepare to strengthen Europe,” the managing director of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), an influential German business lobby group, told DW in July. “We see we are walking toward a bilateral world in which the US and China are predominant and we should all unite to build a strong Europe. It’s a waste of money, it’s a waste of time. Instead, we should combine our forces.”

Defiant tone from London

Johnson has so far struck a defiant tone, saying the UK will leave the EU as planned on October 31, irrespective of whether Brussels accepts London’s latest proposals for a deal.

The British premier told French President Emmanuel Macron by phone that the EU shouldn’t be “lured into the mistaken belief that the UK will stay in the EU after October 31,” his office said.

“We will be packing our bags and walking out,” Johnson wrote in an op-ed published by Britain’s Sun newspaper on Sunday. “The only question is whether Brussels cheerily waves us off with a mutually agreeable deal, or whether we will be forced to head off on our own.”

Slowing German economy

Germany’s export-reliant manufacturers, meanwhile, are suffering not just from the UK’s planned departure from the EU. They’re also facing increased headwinds from a slowing global economy and growing business uncertainty over trade and tariff disagreements between the US and China.

Official statistics released on Monday showed that factory orders in Europe’s biggest economy slumped more than forecast in August. Industrial orders fell by 0.6% month-on-month, the Economy Ministry said, after a hefty 2.1% drop in July. Analysts had expected a 0.3% fall in August.

The figures come after the German economy shrank by 0.1% in the second quarter. Experts believe data will show an additional slowdown between July and September.

Leading economic institutes have recently slashed their growth forecasts for the economy for this year and next. But the labor market has so far appeared to be robust, with record-high employment in the country.

Even though calls for increased government spending to boost growth are growing louder, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has so far stuck to its balanced budget policy.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/german-businesses-already-incurring-brexit-losses-says-industry-boss/a-50725851

The post German businesses already incurring Brexit losses, says industry boss first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

When and if Brexit is finally delivered, a vast array of questions will immediately spring up.

Britain’s prime minister told the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on Monday that victory in the December 12th general election will allow him to “get Brexit done” and then swiftly broker an agreement with the EU on the two sides’ future relationship.

Noting the UK would embark on trade talks from a place of “perfect alignment and harmony” after leaving the EU on January 31st, he told business chiefs he saw “absolutely no reason” why an agreement could not be reached by the end of next year.

It is a line the Conservatives will stick to in their campaigning ahead of polling day as they warn victory for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party would mean more “dither and drift” on Brexit. Mr. Corbyn claimed at the same conference that the Tories’ approach would “subject us to years of drawn-out, bogged down negotiations” with Brussels on a future relationship deal. He said his approach of holding a second referendum would deliver clarity sooner.

But as politicians spar over who is best placed to lead Britain out of its Brexit quagmire, top officials in Brussels believe the UK population faces a brutal reckoning for which it is ill-prepared. EU officials have been preparing for negotiations with the UK on the post-Brexit relationship for more than two years, and behind the scenes, many member states are urging them to take a very hard line indeed.

British prime minister Boris Johnson: ‘absolutely no reason’ why an agreement with the EU could not be reached by end of next year. Photograph: FRANK AUGSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

‘Worst thing’

“What is going to come is going to be much more challenging and demanding than what we have seen up to now,” says one senior EU diplomat. “I would not wish to negotiate a trade deal with the EU on anybody. It’s the worst thing that can happen to you, especially if your administration doesn’t have any experience negotiating trade issues.”

When and if Brexit is finally delivered, a vast array of questions will immediately spring up. The two sides will need to do their best to safeguard a trading relationship worth £650 billion (€758 billion) in 2018, as well as define the terms of co-operation on everything from air transport to fighting terrorism.

The talks will take place to the beat of a ticking clock. The UK’s post-Brexit transition period will expire at the end of 2020 unless Britain requests an extension by the middle of next year – something Mr. Johnson is loath to do.

Both Mr. Johnson and Phil Hogan, the EU’s incoming trade commissioner, have emphasized the two sides are not starting from scratch.

Mr. Hogan told RTÉ last week that Brussels would seek to kick off the negotiations swiftly, noting the UK’s 46 years of EU membership created a unique context: one where Britain is integrated into the European market and in sync with its rules.

“With a bit of goodwill on both sides we can do an agreement more quickly than we would do with any other negotiations around the world, which would take three or four years,” he said.

Mr. Johnson told the CBI the two sides would begin talks “in a state of grace as far as our tariffs and our quotas are concerned”.

“There is no other trade negotiation the EU has ever embarked upon with a third country where that has been the case,” he said.

Another advantage is Mr. Johnson and the EU have already agreed a 27-page political declaration setting out their shared vision of the future relationship. It forms part of the Brexit deal he struck with the bloc in October.

At the heart of the relationship would be a free-trade deal ensuring duty-free and quota-free access for goods, and providing market access for services at least similar to that granted in the EU’s recent trade deals with Canada and Japan. The declaration also covers other key areas of co-operation such as nuclear energy and joint military operations.

The City of London is preparing to lose the right to offer services across the EU

Highly sensitive issues

But EU diplomats warn that putting flesh on the bones of these plans will require a hard-fought negotiation and that the question of how far the UK is prepared to stick to EU rules will be one of several highly sensitive issues needing to be resolved.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has already made clear Brussels will be guided in the talks by a simple principle: the further the UK aims to diverge from EU rules in Mr. Johnson’s avowed quest to boost the country’s economic competitiveness, the more restricted Britain’s access to the single market will be.

The EU argues it is being asked to grant Britain market access on goods going beyond any other trade deal the bloc has with a major economy, creating a clear risk of unfair competition for Europe’s companies. Such access will come at the price of sticking closely to EU law on workers rights, environmental standards, state aid, and other rules.

Britain, by contrast, argues a free-trade deal is a fundamentally looser economic relationship than membership of the EU’s single market and customs union, and that it would be hypocritical for Brussels to demand far more alignment than it has done in negotiations with other countries. Dominic Raab, the UK’s foreign secretary, said on Sunday that the country is “not going to align ourselves to EU rules”.

The post Brexit talks: the brutal reckoning that awaits the UK first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.