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BMW joins Airbus in warning about the consequences of Brexit uncertainty

Airbus said that it could pull out of the UK if there’s a “no deal” Brexit.

LAST UPDATE | 22 Jun 2018

CAR MANUFACTURER BMW has joined Airbus in warning that uncertainty about Brexit is forcing it to reconsider its investment in manufacturing in the UK.

Earlier today the aviation giant, which employs 14,000 people at 25 sites across Britain, warned in a risk assessment yesterday that it would be forced to “reconsider its footprint in the country, its investments in the UK and at large its dependency on the UK” if Britain leaves the single market and customs union without any deal in place.

The UK is due to leave the EU in March 2019 but current trading arrangements will remain in place until December 2020.

While Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly expressed the desire to bring the UK out of the single market and customs union, the lack of clarity on what would replace it has been a hallmark of negotiations with the EU so far.

With the potential for no deal to be reached, Airbus said it needed to take appropriate action

“Put simply, a no deal scenario directly threatens Airbus’ future in the UK,” Tom Williams, chief operating officer of Airbus Commercial Aircraft, said in a statement.

The company estimates that delays and disruptions to its production that would be caused by the trade barriers that would spring up would cost it up to €1 billion a week in lost turnover.

It said a no-deal Brexit “would be catastrophic” for the aviation group.

Even if there was an “orderly” Brexit with an agreement and transition period, Airbus said that its business would still be impacted.

It said: “The new EU/UK relationship will entail new procedures, regulatory regimes, duplication of tasks, divergence of standards etc… potentially leading to higher complexity, more effort, more cost, more risks; more friction/delay in our cross-channel, deeply integrated supply chain operating today on a just-in-time basis.”

Williams added that in any scenario, Brexit has “severe consequences” for the aerospace industry and Airbus in particular.

“While Airbus understands that the political process must go on, as a responsible business we require immediate details on the pragmatic steps that should be taken to operate competitively,” he said.

Without these, Airbus believes that the impacts on our UK operations could be significant. We have sought to highlight our concerns over the past 12 months, without success.

BMW

Carmaker BMW also warned that uncertainty was affecting the investment climate.

Ian Robertson, special representative of the BMW Group in the UK, told the BBC:

If we don’t get clarity in the next couple of months we have to start making those contingency plans – which means investing money in systems that we might not need, in warehouses that might not be usable in the future, in effectively making the UK automotive industry less competitive than it is in a very competitive world right now.

With reporting by © AFP 2018 

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142 Comments
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    Mute Adam Murphy
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:15 PM

    More like Experts are right when they agree with us, and they’re wrong when they disagree :(

    134
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    Mute Tom Tucker
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    Nov 13th 2013, 5:08 PM

    This idiot is rarely right but his arrogance knows no bounds questioning the authority of international experts in a field he hasn’t a clue about. The man is a complete buffoon, and a dangerous one at that. The sooner this government is overthrown or FG stage an internal coup to get rid of this clown the better for us all.

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    Mute Richie Rodgers
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    Nov 13th 2013, 6:18 PM

    Tom
    Idiot
    Buffoon
    Dangerous
    Overthrow
    Coup
    Clown
    The selected word are culled from a couple of sentences you have just contributed on a Dail reply to a question by the Taoiseach.
    Is it necessary to remind whoever you are that the cowardly anonymity that you avail of when using the language of an out of date left wing terrorist is something that your preferred form of Government would not allow.
    It obviously is necessary to remind you that Mr Kenny was the democratic choice of the Irish electorate to become Taoiseach of this Nation and neither the person nor the position should be the subject of such a boorish and libellous assault.
    Crawl back into your Social Welfare funded garret.

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    Mute Fintan O HEifernain
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    Nov 13th 2013, 6:43 PM

    ^^^^ Now there’s hyperbole. Why do you assume he’s on social welfare? Such a narrow-minded, bigoted view of things. You’re obviously using a pseudonym as well, “Richie Rodgers”, which makes you a total hypocrite. I’d agree with Tom in the sense that the man is a moron without a script in front of him. This isn’t the first time he’s essentially declared himself intellectually superior to people in an arrogant and condescending manner. Remember how he addressed Micheal Martin when he challenged him to a debate prior to the referendum? “I wouldn’t want to embarrass you”. I’m no Fianne Failer and certainly no fan of that hypocrite Martin but I know that in any debate scenario he’d mop the floor with Enda Kenny. Frankly, the man seems like a complete idiot that managed to wing his way to the top of Fine Gael and became Taoiseach because of a slew of broken pre-election promises and a protest vote by Irish people against FF.

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    Mute Mike Clinton
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    Nov 13th 2013, 8:09 PM

    Pay no attention to rodgers, it’s nothing but a sad troll with no home life and all it does is troll subjects that might give people a chance to say what they feel about kenny & .co
    This fool insults to throw a subject into disarray.
    Just ignore it.

    9
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    Mute Mike Clinton
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    Nov 14th 2013, 12:19 AM

    rodgers the troll accusing someone of “cowardly anominity”… coming from the biggest coward on the journal , that’s rich.

    1
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    Mute werejammin
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:21 PM

    At a time of financial emergency, the ability to scrutinise what a government blatantly not acting in the best interests of the majority of its citizens are up to.

    This is another attack on our democracy….and from the weasels who promised us transparency pre-election.

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    Mute Carcu Sidub
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    Nov 13th 2013, 3:59 PM

    werejammin

    Could you be claiming that the FG party which grew out of a failed fascist movement are involved in an attack on democracy?

    18
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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:17 PM

    Enda idiots are often wrong as well and you and your advisor’s are no experts.

    65
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    Mute Who's Yer Man
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:15 PM

    Why are they called “experts” then?!

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    Mute Kardia Skepsi
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:20 PM

    Because they’re likely to get it right.

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    Mute Who's Yer Man
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:22 PM

    Ah that’s a great definition of an expert.

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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:46 PM

    If an expert says it can’t be done, get another expert.
    David Ben-Gurion

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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:50 PM

    I was told once that an expert was someone who came from far away and did powerpoint presentations an showed slides.

    But I do like this one.
    “If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can’t be done.”
    Peter Ustinov

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    Mute Frank McIntyre
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:37 PM

    If it costs on average 600 euros to retrieve information then the filing system is truley messed up or incompentenceis a prerequiset to be employed by this government

    36
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    Mute finbarr ocormac
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:18 PM

    Right wing Governments…oops labour are meant to be a socialist Party

    33
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    Mute Declan Carr
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:14 PM

    I would cost a small fortune to look up stuff on Enda kenny

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    Mute Katie Does
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    Nov 13th 2013, 3:17 PM

    They are determined to make all news on this be about €15, as though that’s what the problem is. They keep mentioning it as though that’s what it’s all about. €15 IS NOT the problem.

    Also, the cost of retrieval IS NOT €600. This was a figure Bertie pulled out of his …, um, mentioned back in 2008, which was later confirmed to be wrong by the Dept of Finance.

    Even if it did cost this for civil servants to fulfill an FOI request, it’s not like they were not going to be paid if there was no request. The clue is in the name… they are ‘civil servants’, they provide a civic service. They are paid to do so. Fulfilling FOI requests is such a service. We pay them for this through our taxes.

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    Mute Niamh Byrne
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    Nov 13th 2013, 3:24 PM

    Exactly, another example of double taxation and there they are pretending that the issue is the amount!

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    Mute David Phelan
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    Nov 13th 2013, 3:33 PM

    I don’t know why the Irish people are putting up with this.
    Article 6 of the Irish constitution clearly states as follows.

    (All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under God, from the people, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the common good.)

    In other words WE THE PEOPLE TELL THEM OUR SERVANTS what we want as national policy,is this not national policy and is this not one of the most important requirements for the common good of the people.
    Wake up everyone and start taking back our country.

    Reply

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    Mute EndaMeKnob
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    Nov 13th 2013, 3:49 PM

    Hahahaaaa my five point mass emigration plan worked. No one left to care. Don’t bother replying.

    13
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    Mute Carcu Sidub
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    Nov 13th 2013, 4:03 PM

    But Enda has a mandate.

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    Nov 13th 2013, 5:20 PM

    more likely a date with a man!

    5
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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:24 PM

    If I had the money I would demand an FOI answer as to just how many members of this government are members of Common Purpose and how many of the top civil servants have been on their brainwashing courses. Or is that 2 FOI’s.

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:36 PM

    That will be €30 please and your questions are deemed frivolous :-)

    13
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    Mute Trish Forde-Brennan
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    Nov 13th 2013, 3:03 PM

    For anyone who believes that Ireland is a democratic state the proposed FOI legislation is undemocratic in it’s intent and a significant concern.Hard to justify and harder to stomach.

    17
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    Mute Peter King
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    Nov 13th 2013, 3:11 PM

    Jim: How am I going to explain the missing documents to the Mail?
    Sir Humphrey: Well this is what we normally do in, circumstances like these. [hands over a file]
    Jim: [reading] This file contains the complete set of papers, except for a number of secret documents, a few others which are part of still active files, a few others lost in the flood of 1967. [to Humphrey] Was 1967 a particularly bad winter?
    Sir Humphrey: No a marvellous winter, we lost no end of embarrassing files.
    Jim: [reading] Some records which went astray in the move to London, and others when the War Office was incorporated in the Ministry of Defence, and the normal withdrawal of papers whose publication could give grounds for an action for liable or breach of confidence, or cause embarrassment to friendly governments. [to Humphrey] Well that’s pretty comprehensive. How many does that normally leave for them to look at? [Humphrey says nothing] How many does that actually leave? About a hundred? Fifty? Ten? Five? Four? Three? Two? One? Zero?
    Sir Humphrey: Yes Minister.

    14
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    Mute Carcu Sidub
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    Nov 13th 2013, 3:54 PM

    “Experts aren’t always right”

    So that’s why the people of Mayo keep electing you Enda.

    10
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    Mute Tequila Gold
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:18 PM

    Whats up with traffic today. Mental!

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    Mute Little Jim
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    Nov 13th 2013, 4:28 PM

    Foi’s in the road.

    2
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    Mute Toby Parker
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    Nov 13th 2013, 6:16 PM

    The “Experts” seem to be right when it suits the Govt.

    This is getting worse and worse.

    This Govt is a total disgrace and terrible for the Irish People.

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    Mute Kenneth
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    Nov 13th 2013, 2:28 PM

    Well said Enda inspirational leadership yet again

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    Mute EndaMeKnob
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    Nov 13th 2013, 3:15 PM

    Take your tongue outta there! Ain’t no brown nosing in my department…..now make me tae, quick snap.

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    Mute Maurice Dodd
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    Nov 13th 2013, 4:06 PM

    Kennocchio

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    Mute Enda Rochford
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    Nov 13th 2013, 9:11 PM

    “freedom costs a buck o five”

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    Mute Keith Faherty
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    Nov 13th 2013, 5:30 PM

    Seems fair after all someone has to be paid to do this non essential work

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