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Germany ‘will talk to the last hour’ to avoid no-deal Brexit

26/06/2019    20

UK ambassador says Berlin is willing to hear fresh ideas for Irish border problem.

Germany will fight to the last hour to prevent the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal and is willing to hear any fresh ideas for the Irish border backstop, the country’s ambassador to the UK has said.

Speaking at a car manufacturers’ summit in London, Peter Wittig said Germany cherished its relationship with the UK and was ready to talk about solutions the new prime minister might have for the Irish border problem.

“My country is ready to talk and the chancellor [Angela Merkel] once said she would be willing to talk to the last hour not to have a no-deal scenario,” he said.

“It’s a mindset. We are not giving up in achieving an orderly Brexit. Germany has been a very pragmatic voice in this whole tortuous Brexit process and we will continue to be that.

“Even if we have a short window while the new prime minister is in place, we will welcome any idea how to solve that famous backstop issue and we will be willing to work towards a negotiated deal which is long term the only viable and sensible option for Europe,” he added.

Asked if Germany would support another extension in the Brexit process, he said: “We can’t be more specific. It is now the turn of the UK government to come up with the plan and talk to us [the EU].

“Our mindset is to explore all pathways to come to a negotiated deal.”

The German envoy’s comments came as motor industry leaders warned that the cost of car manufacturing would go up £70m a day if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, making the British automotive industry more vulnerable to closures,.

They also warned for the second time this year that car prices will go up by an average of £1,500.

“Leaving the EU without a deal would trigger the most seismic shift in trading conditions ever experienced by automotive, with billions of pounds of tariffs threatening to impact consumer choice and affordability,” said the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) at an industry conference in London.

“The end to borderless trade could bring crippling disruptions to the industry’s just-in-time operating model. Delays to shipments of parts to production plants are measured in minutes, with every 60 seconds costing £50,000 in gross value added – amounting to some £70m a day in a worst-case scenario,” it added.

In a report, the SMMT said the imposition of tariffs for trade in passenger cars along would be £4.5bn, a “knockout blow” to the sector’s competitiveness.

The industry has already lost two big names in the past year with the closure of Honda in Swindon in 2021 and the axing of the Ford plant in Bridgend in Wales with the loss of thousands of jobs.

While neither Honda nor Ford cited Brexit as a cause, the industry fears Britain’s competitiveness and unstable political environment will deter future investment by global car manufacturers.

Mike Hawes, the SMMT chief executive, said: “We are already seeing investment stall. As a manufacturer you constantly invest in machinery to make sure you are more efficient, make sure you are competitive.

“When the big investment decisions come with a new model, that’s when you are competing with other plants, that’s when you need to be at your most efficient and if in the previous two or three years you have underinvested it makes it much harder.”

Few car companies want to go public on their fears over Brexit because of the backlash in the media and some political interests, sources say.

Hawes said the analysis of tariffs was based on facts, on industry and government data and warned that his pleas were not fearmongering.

“We are not making claims that the entire industry will close doors overnight, this industry is adaptable and agile, but it can only do so much if the barriers are particularly high,” he said.

He warned the industry would decline with a “death by a thousand cuts”.

Costs could be hit by stoppages in production lines in the event of delays to supply of components over the Calais-Dover transit route and also by the imposition of tariffs of between 2% and 4.5% by the EU.

The car industry has little to no warehousing capacity to stockpile in the event of no deal with production based on just-in-time and just-in-sequence systems.

“We have 1,100 vehicles a day coming into the UK with parts, components, we need them to move seamlessly. If we have delivery delays, that means production stops,” he said.

Some component manufacturers have also been hit by the Brexit uncertainty, Hawes said, including one company in south Wales.

Source: The Guardian