This weekend we await news on the trade negotiations with the EU which have been in deadlock for months. The options Prime Minister Boris Johnson has brought us to are a thin deal (the so-called Canadian option) or no-deal (the so-called Australian option). At present, the Prime Minister has indicated that there is a “strong possibility” of no-deal. Crashing out of a trading bloc with our nearest and largest partners without a deal would be a disaster for
Britain. We risk our security intelligence sharing arrangements, huge tariffs on many products (especially food), massive tailbacks and blockages to trade at our borders, and a predicted additional 2% hit to GDP according to the OBR. Put simply, this would mean higher unemployment, higher inflation and a smaller economy. That the UK is even in this position with just days to go before the deadline on 31st December and while already facing the worst economic downturn in the G7 is incompetence of the highest order. Last year, the British people were promised an ‘oven-ready’ deal. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak said in the run-up to the general election that ‘We won’t need to plan for no-deal because we
have a deal’. Yet with 20 days to go, many businesses still don’t know where they stand, and the uncertainty is causing chaos at our borders. For Birmingham and the West Midlands, whose economy is built on industries like automotive and manufacturing that rely on frictionless trade, this is especially damaging. With news earlier this week that Honda had to shut its Swindon factory due to a parts shortage, I wrote to the Government to ask what it is doing to address the gridlock. You can read my letter by clicking the link below. |
