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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! 10:38 - Nov 15 with 1778 viewsShaky

Honda UK warns MPs of consequences of leaving EU customs union
Motor industry says threatened new tariffs could add £1,500 to price of an imported car, and make exports more expensive too

Dan Roberts Brexit policy editor
Published: 19:10 GMT+00:00 Tue 14 November 2017

The devastating impact of a hard Brexit on the UK car industry was laid bare on Tuesday to MPs, who were told every 15 minutes of customs delays would cost some manufacturers up to £850,000 a year.

Presenting the industry’s most detailed evidence yet to the business select committee, Honda UK said it relied on 350 trucks a day arriving from Europe to keep its giant Swindon factory operating, with just an hour’s worth of parts being held on the production line.

The Japanese-owned company said it would take 18 months to set up new procedures and warehouses if Britain left the customs union but that, with 2m daily component movements, even minor delays at Dover and the Channel tunnel would force hundreds of its trucks to wait for the equivalent of 90 hours a day.

“Outside of the customs union, there is no such thing as a frictionless border,” said Honda’s government affairs manager, Patrick Keating.

“I wouldn’t say that the just-in-time manufacturing model wouldn’t work, but it would certainly be very challenging.”

Brexit: failure to update customs system could be 'catastrophic'
Until now, many large multinationals have chosen to present such commercially-sensitive data to the government in private, but with MPs still struggling to force disclosure of 58 sectoral analysis reports produced by Whitehall officials, there is growing demand for the impact of leaving without a deal to be spelled out.

Witnesses said new tariffs would add an estimated £1,500 to the price of an imported car, and Rachel Reeves, the Labour MP and former Bank of England economist who led Tuesday’s hearing, encouraged the executives to outline how exporters might also face a possible £300 cost due to tariffs on their imported components.

If Britain leaves without a trade deal, ministers plan to apply World Trade Organization tariffs that stand at 10% for finished vehicles and about 4.5% for automotive components. More than a third of the 690 cars a day produced by Honda in Swindon are sold in Europe, which is also the source of 40% of the company’s parts.

Honda and other witnesses from Aston Martin and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) argued that customs and trade threats were only the start of their concerns.

Aston Martin also feared a “semi-catastrophic” end to EU recognition of UK regulatory approval, something Keating revealed Brussels was now threatening in the event of a “no-deal” Brexit.

Honda pointed to a recent study suggesting the cost of converting an EU car to match US standards is equivalent to another 26% tariff increase.

The industry also fears the impact of new immigration rules for EU nationals. Already 14% of Honda’s 3,500 to 4,000-strong Swindon workforce are from other EU countries, but this is growing fast: of the 600 extra workers hired to build new Civic model last year, 40% were EU workers, as are 30% of the staff at the company’s European HQ in Bracknell.

On Monday, European business leaders including Britain’s CBI warned that the government had just two weeks to make progress on a Brexit divorce agreement if they were to get the clarity they urgently need by the anniversary of article 50 being invoked in March.

“People are sitting on their hands waiting for more clarity about the likely trading relationship with our biggest partner,” Mike Hawes, the chief executive of the SMMT, told the business committee on Tuesday.

Though Honda declined to discuss its UK profitability in public, the SMMT said car manufacturing was a low-margin business, yielding an average 2-4% return on investment.

EU business leaders tell PM: agree Brexit deal or face collapse in confidence
“You are pretty quickly getting into negative territory,” said Hawes when asked what this would mean in the event of a hard Brexit. “If we went on to WTO terms, it would be incredibly difficult.”

He predicted there may be a diminished choice of cars on sale for British consumers if there is divergence in regulatory standards as some niche importers would not bother to have additional testing just for the UK market.

“If there is any sort of divergence, manufacturers will have to decide whether they want type approval on that UK vehicle, so there might be a contraction in terms of choice,” explained the SMMT boss.

And the industry leaders dismissed arguments that mutual interest among European manufacturers would be enough to automatically force a solution.

While 56% of British car exports go to Europe, just 7% of EU exports go the UK. “The UK is an important market but what matters more is protecting the EU single market,” said Hawes.

Although 10% of the SMMT’s 800 members were revealed in a survey to have supported Brexit during the referendum, its chief executive said he had yet to meet a member who supported leaving now.

“This is a fiercely competitive industry, yet this is a subject that is pretty unifying across the industry,” he told MPs.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/14/honda-uk-warns-mps-of-consequen

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 10:57 - Nov 15 with 1764 viewsPrivate_Partz

The snowflakes should suck it up. We fought and won two world wars. We are a super power and everybody loves us. America, India and China are queuing up to do business with us. Don't they realise this? This can all be done without Johnny Foreigner over here as well. ;-)

You have mission in life to hold out your hand, To help the other guy out, Help your fellow man. Stan Ridgway

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:03 - Nov 15 with 1751 viewsHumpty

So our car industry get's f*cked.

Still. At least all the muslims will go home.

MABA!
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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:04 - Nov 15 with 1751 viewsDyfnant

Start manufacturing the parts in the UK again

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:04 - Nov 15 with 1751 viewsLohengrin

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/why-there-might-be-a-case-for

An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it.

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:17 - Nov 15 with 1722 viewsShaky

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:03 - Nov 15 by Humpty

So our car industry get's f*cked.

Still. At least all the muslims will go home.

MABA!


But the car industry isn't really ours anymore. It is more a Jappo-indian affair. So all the jobs that will be lost aren't really ours either, see?

instead we can get back to making true British motors again:


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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:21 - Nov 15 with 1711 viewsBobby_Fischer

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:17 - Nov 15 by Shaky

But the car industry isn't really ours anymore. It is more a Jappo-indian affair. So all the jobs that will be lost aren't really ours either, see?

instead we can get back to making true British motors again:



Weren't British Leyland nationalised? And at that point we fell behind Europe and Asia.

Give it 20 years and the M4 will be akin to the cars in Cuba ;)

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:24 - Nov 15 with 1708 viewsHumpty

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:04 - Nov 15 by Lohengrin

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/why-there-might-be-a-case-for


Heh! Look at you reading lefty newspapers.
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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 12:03 - Nov 15 with 1683 viewsLohengrin

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:24 - Nov 15 by Humpty

Heh! Look at you reading lefty newspapers.


I read 'em all, Hump. There's about a half-hundredweight goes into the recycling here on a Monday morning.

An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it.

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 12:09 - Nov 15 with 1672 viewsLohengrin

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:17 - Nov 15 by Shaky

But the car industry isn't really ours anymore. It is more a Jappo-indian affair. So all the jobs that will be lost aren't really ours either, see?

instead we can get back to making true British motors again:



We can all dream, can't we....


An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it.

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 12:23 - Nov 15 with 1658 viewsacejack3065

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 12:03 - Nov 15 by Lohengrin

I read 'em all, Hump. There's about a half-hundredweight goes into the recycling here on a Monday morning.


Get a life mun. It's all fake news.
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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 12:31 - Nov 15 with 1643 viewsLohengrin

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 12:23 - Nov 15 by acejack3065

Get a life mun. It's all fake news.


Tailor-made for an old fraud like me.

An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it.

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 13:36 - Nov 15 with 1592 viewsacejack3065

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 12:31 - Nov 15 by Lohengrin

Tailor-made for an old fraud like me.


The only paper I ever buy is the Evening Post and I always regret that. Used to read the Guardian on Campus when it was 40p for students. No wonder they are losing money hand over fist.
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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 14:02 - Nov 15 with 1565 viewsjojaca

Who can afford a new car these days.

Even when you know, you never know?

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 14:05 - Nov 15 with 1559 viewswhoflungdung

Just when you thought it could get worse ,along comes the Allegro

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 15:06 - Nov 15 with 1529 viewsBatterseajack

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 11:04 - Nov 15 by Dyfnant

Start manufacturing the parts in the UK again


so create an entire supply base in this country....hmmm don't think this has been thought through
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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 15:11 - Nov 15 with 1522 viewsLohengrin

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 15:06 - Nov 15 by Batterseajack

so create an entire supply base in this country....hmmm don't think this has been thought through


Replicate the very thing destroyed by the predation of international finance? It's entirely possible, the real time constraint is training youngsters up while those with the skills and knowledge are still around in numbers.

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 16:24 - Nov 15 with 1476 viewsCooperman

This is spin from an entity that has no UK future anyway. Honda Swindon is the pimple on the arsehole of this vast company and I’m surprised that it has survived until now. High staffing numbers coupled with low volume and unattractive models in segments where competition is tough will only lead to the inevitable.

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 17:23 - Nov 15 with 1429 viewsWhiterockin

So Germany are going to agree tariffs on cars, when we buy Mercedes, BMW's, Volkswagen's, Audi's and Skoda's (made in the Czech Republic, German owned) from them. We are the largest buyer of German cars in Europe.
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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 18:32 - Nov 15 with 1365 viewsShaky

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 15:11 - Nov 15 by Lohengrin

Replicate the very thing destroyed by the predation of international finance? It's entirely possible, the real time constraint is training youngsters up while those with the skills and knowledge are still around in numbers.


UK Auto & parts industry destroyed by international finance? the Rothschilds specifically?

So nothing to do with years of crap management, industrial unrest. lack of investment, and world class comedy leading quality control?

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 18:37 - Nov 15 with 1359 viewsShaky

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 17:23 - Nov 15 by Whiterockin

So Germany are going to agree tariffs on cars, when we buy Mercedes, BMW's, Volkswagen's, Audi's and Skoda's (made in the Czech Republic, German owned) from them. We are the largest buyer of German cars in Europe.


Unfortunately that particular Brexiter's pipedream of German automakers strong-arming Mrs Merkel into conceding free trade terms on behalf of the EU was consigned to the dustbin some time ago:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Prepare now for over-the-cliff Brexit, German industry says
Michael Nienaber

OCTOBER 5, 2017 / 8:29 AM / UPDATED 20 HOURS AGO

BERLIN (Reuters) - German firms active in Britain should make provisions now for a “very hard Brexit”, Germany’s biggest industry group said on Thursday, because the government in London does not know what it wants.

The Federation of German Industries (BDI) said British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government lacked a clear strategy on how to exit the European Union following last year’s referendum.

“After four rounds of negotiations, German industry looks with concern at the progress of the Brexit negotiations,” BDI Managing Director Joachim Lang told reporters in Berlin. “The British government is lacking a clear concept despite talking a lot.”

To prepare for a disruptive British departure from the EU, the BDI said it had set up a task force including major companies, which trains-to-turbines group Siemens (SIEGn.DE) said it was part of.

This week’s annual conference of May’s Conservatives showed her party remained deeply divided over Brexit and that a lack of strategy was complicating the negotiations with the EU about Britain’s divorce talks, Lang said.

“German companies with a presence in Britain and Northern Ireland must now make provisions for the serious case of a very hard exit. Anything else would be naive.”

A hard Brexit would mean no agreement with the EU, and Britain falling back on World Trade Organisation rules rather than being in a tariff-free single market and customs union with the bloc.

Britain is Germany’s third most important single export destination and its fifth biggest overall trading partner.

“The aim of the task force is to identify potential and acute risks arising from Britain’s departure and to present constructive proposals for solutions,” Lang said.

Sources told Reuters in September that big players such as Airbus (AIR.PA) and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) were participants.

Siemens, which employs more than 15,000 people in Britain including a wind-power joint venture Siemens Gamesa (SGREN.MC), said it was joining too. “Obviously we’re very interested in this whole endeavour,” a spokesman said.

Germany’s VDA automobile association, which represents major manufacturers such as BMW (BMWG.DE), is also involved, a VDA spokeswoman said.

The UK is the second-biggest export market for German car manufacturers with a value of nearly 29 billion euros (25.86 billion pounds). German carmakers and suppliers also employ roughly 9,000 people at 95 production sites in Britain.

The BDI and VDA did not name individual companies taking part in the task force meetings.

GROWING UNEASE

The industry preparations are the result of growing unease after slow and acrimonious negotiations so far between Britain’s Brexit minister David Davis and his counterpart at the European Commission, Michel Barnier.

In Europe’s biggest economy, companies are now preparing for the worst, including the imposition of tariffs and the risk of a loss of access to London financial markets.

Foreign direct investments from both sides amount to some 140 billion euros and German companies employ roughly 400,000 people in the UK, according to BDI.

The task force, established in early summer, is accelerating its work in regular meetings in Berlin, Lang said. It is expected to present conclusions in December and this could also help shape the position of Germany’s next coalition government.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly made clear that she regrets the British decision to leave the EU but that London should not expect a special deal and that keeping the remaining 27 member states together was more important for her.

Dampening hopes among some Brexiteers that London could succeed in driving a wedge between governments and companies in other European countries, Lang said German industry fully backed the EU’s negotiation strategy.

“To make it clear: Yes, German industry wants to keep a very close relationship with Britain. But have no doubt: We prioritise the further development of the EU,” Lang said.

“The ball now lies in Britain’s court. The speech by the British prime minister in Florence two weeks ago by no means brought the clarity that had been hoped for,” Lang said, referring to May’s attempt to speed up negotiations.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday that the fourth round of negotiations did not produce enough agreement for the EU to yield to May’s demands for immediate talks on a free trade deal and a transition to it after Brexit.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-germany/prepare-now-for-over-the-cli

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 19:12 - Nov 15 with 1337 viewsPozuelosSideys

These are German business people talking here mind mate. In their eyes, there is the "logical" German way of viewing and doing things, and everyone elses way of viewing and doing things.

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Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 20:04 - Nov 15 with 1309 viewsLohengrin

Automotive industry remoaners; Get on with it! on 18:32 - Nov 15 by Shaky

UK Auto & parts industry destroyed by international finance? the Rothschilds specifically?

So nothing to do with years of crap management, industrial unrest. lack of investment, and world class comedy leading quality control?


This Jew fixation of the left is all-consuming. Very odd...

You don't have to go back to the '70s, the last ten years will do to witness the off-shoring of British manufacturing jobs, specifically Welsh jobs in the automotive component sector to understand my reference point. Finance seeks fatter profit regardless of the national interest. Not all of us just roll-over, some of us crave a national government that would uphold the national interest.

An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it.

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