Once the UK runs its ownĀ borders there is no need for the government to impose new checks and delays at our ports to impede motor components. I trust the UK government will reassure BMW and others that it has no plans to delay imported components. It could go further and say the UK place will not place any tariff on motor car components from anywhere in the world, making it easier for manufacturers here. That’s the advantage of running our own trade policy and customs.
79 Comments
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September 18, 2018
But they won’t will they
It doesn’t fit the narrative
September 18, 2018
WTO was the only trade option on the table when we all voted to leave the EU. May has failed to improve on what we voted for. When are you all going to tell her her Chequers remain option is not better and totally contrary to her lying claims about it keeping faith with the referendum? This applies to Raab as well. Both should be under parliamentary investigation for making false claims in parliament.
Reply I have told her the Chequers proposal is unacceptable and WTO much better
September 19, 2018
Sky eventually admitted that in reality this was just an āannual shutdownā https://order-order.com/2018/09/18/faisal-reverse-ferrets-bmw-brexit-doom/
And a reminder of how the previous BMW scare story panned out: https://www.conservativehome.com/video/2018/07/watch-clark-says-his-job-is-to-ensure-businesses-dont-need-their-contingency-plans.html#IDComment1063452006
September 18, 2018
DEFRA uses pictures of EU farms in Germany and Slovenia to “showcase UK agriculture”: Bonsai, or is it Bansai?
September 18, 2018
And can the UK goernment assure BMW that France, Belgium will introduce no checks? As a member of the EU it can. Not after Brexit. Yet more jobs lost to your irrational ideological fixation with Brexit
Reply How and why would they wish to restrict their exports to their own car manufacturers!
September 18, 2018
It’s more a fixation with democracy. Brexit is a consequence of a democratic vote which you no doubt participated in.
The hypocrisy and anti-democratic instincts of some Remain voters is quite disturbing
September 18, 2018
The EU is a rules based system. As far as I know, EU would not reciprocate opportunistic moves by a third country. BMW’s pl;an may be routine, a preparation for an unfavourable brexit outcome or an excuse to downsize an operation that is already a bit of a burden. Minis and their engines can be built elsewhere and maybe cheaper. Assuming the Japanese carmakers would resize their UK operations (zand PSA do the same) all after a while of course ,no need to upset the host, big Japanese [parts makers (including Aisin/Getrag) will shift prduction too. Except Honda (which has already decided to import CRV’s from Canada and Jazzes fron Japan, China or Thailand) all UK-based foreign owned carmakers have backup plans, Tata being the latest to be rather blunt. The more the UK lowers tariffs, the greater the chance there will be no car industry left, maybe.
September 18, 2018
We can’t promise that JIT will not fail..even if we do everything correct on our side doesn’t mean that French Dutch or Belgian front line officials will be so accommodating on their side
September 19, 2018
Then the UK government should be emphasising to the companies and to the wider world that if there were unnecessary delays they would not be of the UK government’s making. Instead it is deliberately spreading the false idea that without Theresa May’s plan UK customs would have to hold up imports.
September 19, 2018
The large French & Belgian trade surpluses with the UK on food, cars etc is an incentive for cross-channel maxfac to run smoothly. The UK-EU goods trade deficit is currently Ā£97Bn pa http://facts4eu.org/news_aug_b_2018.shtml#bot
Oxford Academic Robin Dunbar on JIT: āBusiness knows better than anyone else that a supply chain is only as good as it is this year. As prices and exchange rates fluctuate, supply chains constantly have to be rethought and renegotiated. That is everyday lifeā https://briefingsforbrexit.com/what-price-hard-brexit-when-it-inevitably-comes-by-robin-dunbar/
September 18, 2018
Not sure how true this is, but apparently they have brought forward their usual maintenance shutdown and will be putting in the new manufacturing lines for electric vehicles?
If so, this strikes me as eminently sensible planning and – in the course of a year – won’t (or shouldn’t) cost more than doing it later in the year?
September 18, 2018
BMW manufactures in many countries outside the EU. Its supply chains include sea crossings of thousands of miles. The idea that the company cannot manage its operations in UK after Brexit is highly insulting. Of course, it can be and has been persuaded to make public pronouncements favouring influential politicians. But in truth there is nothing inherent in Brexit that would make operations in Uk unduly costly or difficult. The problem seems to me that much of the debate inside and outside Westminster is conducted by people who do not understand manufacturing and who lack common sense.
September 18, 2018
Of course this has nothing to do with Mrs. Merkel’s desire to do us harm…
Reading the MSM and listing to the talking heads this Brexit negotiation is proceeding as convincingly as a Christmas pantomime farce! I’ll let others decide which one and who is Widow Twankey.
Oh for a PM who is worthy of the title..
September 18, 2018
Peter Wood
“Of course this has nothing to do with Mrs. Merkelās desire to do us harmā¦”
Why should she want to do that? Germany supported our accession despite de Gaulle’s repeated ‘Non’ and has always been pro UK.
I keep pointing out that until the 20th century Germany was the ONLY European country Britain had NEVER been at war with and our Kings and Queens starting with the 4 Georges and including Victoria were all German from the Kings of Hanover. They only changed their names from Saxe Coburg Gotha to Windsor during WW1.
September 19, 2018
Merkel seeks to make the UK suffer for having the temerity to leave the EU, as reported by the BBC on Newsnight.
The German nation state only came into being in 1871, so its hardly surprising there was no war until the 20th Century. But it didn’t take them long to start a pan-European war did it?
Germany is now, the de-facto ruler of the EU, simply because it is the largest, by far, net contributor to the EU budget. Ask yourself, could the EU exist without Germany? The UK has been stupid enough to help them fund it!
September 19, 2018
“The German nation state only came into being in 1871”
==
Somebody should have told Tacitus when he wrote his ‘Germania’ – De Origine et situ Germanorum – in 98 AD.
Or the rulers of the Holy Roman (German) Empire from the 9th to the 19th century.
That’s like saying England didn’t exist until the Act of Union of 1707 which created Great Britain.
And Germany was just one of the 6 EU founder members. I believe Britain was asked to join but was trying in make its own trading blocs work.
September 18, 2018
“Of course … to do us harm …” A rather surprising/ridiculous remark, as if politicians had so much influence on what companies do.
September 18, 2018
The fact is that the establishment doesn’t want Brexit so we won’t be getting it.
September 18, 2018
Yes we will.
September 18, 2018
Anonymous
The establishment doesn’t want 17 million strong angry people decending on Westminster, but they will be getting it.
September 18, 2018
As if the few hot heads on this blog were representative of the 17 million …
September 19, 2018
Hefner
So you’re saying that hard working, tax paying, people of all classes and wide ranging ages must be ‘hot heads’ ?
And yes, we are representative of the 17 million, we all voted for the same thing.
Might I suggest if you’re not comfortable with people on this blog then perhaps you might consider we are very tolerant of each others views, however, reasonably that does not extend to insults.
September 19, 2018
Nor the 16m intelligent, wealth creating remainers!
September 19, 2018
mainly public sector employees.
September 20, 2018
E2, Could it be that late in life you regret not having been able to become a public sector employee and get the well-known huge pension.
My psychiatrist is telling me it is a rather current occurrence in people who with advancing age realize they might have missed a bit in their life? Just an hypothesis.
September 18, 2018
Anonymous..exactly so..democracy counts for very little in UK..it was always “managed”..only thing is that Cameron made a huge mistake in giving the referendum without doing the correct risk analysis..the establishment were knocked off their perch and have spent the past two years at damage limitation control..all politicos know this..although very few will admit to knowing it
September 18, 2018
This is just the sort of disquiet that Mrs May’s bungled and dishonest negotiation gives rise to. Whatever the outcome of this Brexit negotiation we surely cannot allow the Mays and Hammonds of your party anywhere near the tiller of an emerging UK sovereign power.
September 18, 2018
Sounds like a political move, this closing down in April.
It will of course add to the claimed cliff-edge in April, totally unnecessarily when demand patterns and maintenance requirements would normally point to a summer close down. So any production/GDP figures hereon in need to be seen in the light of these businesses working to a political agenda rather than to a business one.
September 18, 2018
At the same time, of course, if BMW don’t want to make cars here there will be others who can fill the gap.
September 18, 2018
Who?
Nobody will trust England enough to invest millions here.
After all we ditched EFTA and commonwealth countries like Australia and NZealand when we joined the EU. What guarantee can we give that it won’t happen again when conditions change in the future?
I said ‘England’ not Great Britain because both Scotland and Ireland will have long gone and joined the EU as independent countries.
September 19, 2018
If they join the EU they will no longer be independent nations.
Their laws their borders and control over their money will pass to the EU
September 19, 2018
And don’t forget that they will need to resurrect and finish Hadrian’s wall š
September 19, 2018
Edward2
They’ll be more independent than they ever were when they were ruled from London.
September 19, 2018
Democratically and directly elected by the uk voters.
Unlike the EU commission and council appointees.
September 19, 2018
And with the boot on the other foot, do BMW want to jeopardise some 16% of their German car production that is destined for the UK market by playing pseudo-political games?
As SJS says there are plenty of other car makes to choose from and amazingly some of them are not made in the EU !!!
September 19, 2018
I don’t think there will be much demand for Reliant Robins.
September 19, 2018
Pathetic comment margaret.
Look up all the fine UK based companies making top quality vehicles.
Employing hundreds of thousands of people and paying hundreds of millions in tax.
Why are you lefties always cynical and sneering?
September 19, 2018
Got something against the Welsh, have you?
September 19, 2018
You’ve hit the nail on the head
September 19, 2018
margaret howard
……………….
Inward investment into England is running at a high and is beating EU hands down
Ā£460 million. The amount of investment in the British manufacturing & engineering sectors announced this week by Aston Martin (Ā£50m), JEE (Ā£6m), Thatchers (Ā£14m), Ryobi (Ā£7m), Cummins (Ā£210m), Ineos (Ā£60m), Leoni (Ā£7m), CRRC (Ā£50m), QinetiQ (Ā£2m) and Lear (Ā£54m)
Rolls-Royce officially opens new Ā£20m manufacturing facility in Bristol
Global food and drink company @NestleUKI invest over Ā£600m in their UK operations.
Airbus recruits 140 new apprentices at its Broughton plant – largest intake in decades by the aerospace giant ( remember then we were told they were definitely leaving)
BAE Systems secures Ā£5bn Qatari export contract for 24 Typhoon jets and 9 Hawk aircraft
Hundreds of jobs are on the way to the Tees Valley with the news that Suez are planning a new Ā£100m energy-from-waste plant at Haverton Hill.
Worldās biggest wind turbine maker to expand UK manufacturing base in the Isle of Wight
Dojima invests Ā£9m at new sake brewery in Cambridgeshire:
1,196 new British manufacturing jobs have been announced this week by Cartwright Group (178), Bakkavor (200), Aston Martin (200), Williams/Unipart (90), Brighter Foods (50), Lear (200), MTL (48), Leoni (100), ID Systems (80) and Meadow Foods (50).
A Ā£60m expansion for INEOS at Grangemouth
Thatchers’ new Ā£14m cider mill investment,
Ā£50m investment: Spanish automotive components manufacturer @gestamp opens new 546,000 sq ft factory in South Staffordshire safeguarding 800 jobs
Italian aerospace, defence & security group Leonardo opens new Ā£2m training academy in Lincoln
YORKSHIRE: Robotics firm secures record Ā£25m order book following successful MBO. Dewsbury-based high technology firm Sewtec designs and manufactures factory automation systems for the food, pharmaceutical, personal care and tobacco industries.
This is a fraction of whats happening , I’ve only included England and its just from September 2018
Remainers have zero credibility
By the way I personally would be very happy to have an Independent England
September 19, 2018
No doubt they’ll more than compensate for any losses. Will any of them withdraw their investment when Brexit is ditched?
September 19, 2018
very few.
September 18, 2018
“Car giant BMW will shut its main British manufacturing factory immediately after Brexit day next year for several weeks, because of the rising risk of a “no-deal” divorce, Sky News has learned.
The Mini plant in Oxford will not produce cars for at least a month from 1 April 2019, as the German giant activates the next stage of its no-deal contingency plans”
German efficiency.
September 18, 2018
Haha
Efficiency to close a car plant 3 months early for its annual maintenance?
If it’s so efficient why are they saying it’s costing them?
You can’t have your cake and eat it, as the Germans would say.
September 18, 2018
”German efficiency” – you mean well on the way to Mitteleuropa?
How CAN you think that these people are our friends? You don’t though, do you?
Your obvious glee at the very idea of the UK having problems is palpable. Very unattractive – and wrong.
September 19, 2018
I at least did not cause them , you did .
September 18, 2018
I hear we are to have a new tax on beefburgers. Mrs May giving us a masterclass in how to upset the entire country.
Staggering, absolutely staggering.
Let us know how you plan to vote on this measure.
September 18, 2018
Next it will be dahlias, because Philip doesn’t recognise them.
Fruit and nutcakes doesn’t touch the sides of it.
September 18, 2018
“BMW to close for a month after Brexit”, do I have to find that reassuring? Or may I conclude that someone here speaks out of his b.m?
September 18, 2018
The workforce won’t be very happy having to take holidays in April rather than July or August.
Not a good move hacking everyone off to make a political statement.
September 18, 2018
Free Trade is free of daft charges, such as paying the EU billions to waste in their crazy club.
Even when we did so, those deviants obstructed us from obtaining what they misdescribe as ‘Free’.
If BMWs are worth buying, they’ll sell. If not they’re suited for scrap.
September 18, 2018
Perhaps the best of all – farms in N Ireland will now be forced to move south due to lack of available workers after Brexit – CBI. Those apple trees won’t uproot themselves!
September 18, 2018
Indeed. Loads of advantages of being in control and having a nimble government able to adjust to the economic climate of the time.
This does however require sensible people in government who possess brains and working compasses. Could we have this please?
Rees Mogg suggested Philip Hammond was sometimes likened to Eeyore. An allusion perhaps rather lost on the younger generation but far, far too polite anyway. The man is a doom and gloom, economic illiterate who is damaging the economy hugely with over taxation and over complex taxation, a total lack of positive vision, a desire to kill Brexit at any cost, and green crap lunacy advocate. This while funding endless government waste and delivering little of any real value.
September 18, 2018
looking through the government policies, and their lack of ability to implement anything, I am staggered that this is the best the country can do.
there is an open door for a new political force to come through with some common sense, and tell the current political elite some home truths
a dozen obvious policies scribbled on the back of a beer mat would wipe all of the current lot of all parties out of the water, starting with proper immigration control with is also sensible to those already here legally, moving onto more power to the citizen and away from the state… deary me
September 18, 2018
“I trust the UK government will reassure BMW and others that it has no plans to delay imported components.”
On the contrary I assume that No 10 has already agreed with BMW and others that they will repeatedly express close to hysterical concern about the potentially dire effects of delays to imported car components, and at no point will the UK government publicly reassure them that it has no plans to delay said components.
BMW have constructed a business model on the present EU scenario and they do not want it changed in any way which would cause them inconvenience and potentially loss, and as it has always been the UK government is on their side and that of the rest of the 6% of UK businesses which export 12% of the GDP to the EU, rather than looking to the interests of the other 94% of UK businesses and 88% of UK GDP.
I pointed out many months ago the government was rarely offering any rebuttals of the tide of anti-Brexit propaganda, and when it did make any comments they were usually pretty feeble, and since then it has become obvious that the government is directly or indirectly behind much of the propaganda.
September 18, 2018
Such statements are, indeed, for public consumption. However, internally, the blame is being laid squarely on the UK government (and the Chancellor in particular) and it’s policy of demonising of diesel vehicles. High stocks of unsold cars is the main reason for the hiatus. Brexit issues will currently be way down the list of reasons. Expect other UK-based manufacturers to quickly follow suit.
September 18, 2018
Indeed.
September 18, 2018
Indeed.
It is so clearly part of a concocted plan to thwart the people, and their will. People are clever enough to work this out. These things will just get people’s backs up.
Bring on that second referendum, with a double question. Brexit on 30.3.19 plus a Brexit-only cabinet versus Remain on 30.3.19 and let May carry on with her stupid plan.
September 18, 2018
John, neither BMW nor any of the other doommongers need ‘reassuring’. Project Fear is always co-ordinated –
IMF+Hammond+the three German Merkel-allies (BMW+RR/Jaguar+Airbus) plus Honda + CBI + IoD.
They all just follow the agreed diary dates for their repetitive pre-scheduled ‘warnings’, and they always appear within the same week. They’re too lazy and stupid to be less obvious about it.
All steered by the EU in joint agreement with May and the ‘real’ UK government – the Cabinet Office and the Treasury.
September 18, 2018
“UK place will not place any tariff on motor car components from anywhere in the world” JR says.
So what happens to the profitability of the UK’s domestic vehicle component manufacturers that are mostly SMEs? BMW sources a lot of its components from six ex Soviet countries, now in the EU, and on its eastern border.
September 18, 2018
BTW. The word on the continent is CETA will be the exemplar for a “take it or leave it” offer of a “political declaration”, for a future EU-UK relationship; that could be written into a UK Art 50 Withdrawal Agreement.
September 19, 2018
Well, JR actually said that would be a possibility; if it was going to seriously damage UK based component manufacturers to rush into doing it then it may not be such a good idea. However you don’t give any indication of the level of EU tariffs presently applied to vehicle components from outside the EU, and from what I read here:
https://www.ft.com/content/b56d0936-6ae0-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7eaa
it is an average of 4.5%, which is hardly a massive protective barrier.
September 19, 2018
SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes said in a statement. […] emphasised how integrated the British auto industry is with the rest of Europe, with 1,100 trucks per day bringing in parts for UK vehicle factories. āWe cannot afford a āno dealā Brexit. That is the worst of the imaginable options for this industry,ā he told a briefing in Brussels late on Tuesday.
“Tariffs of 10 percent under World Trade Organisation rules would add an average of 3,000 euros to the cost of British-built cars sold in the EU if fully passed on to buyers and 1,700 euros to the cost of a European car imported into Britain.”
September 19, 2018
We’re talking about the imports of components into the UK, and not the exports of finished vehicles from the UK. Losing the protection of an EU average tariff of 4.5% on components from outside the EU would not have a major impact on UK producers of components.
September 20, 2018
Have you any idea on the slim margins these vehicle manufacturers work on? BMW is one of the mass market’s best at about 8%. OK, Ferrari and Porsche can get 20% plus.
The UK has Aston Martin (AM), which has gone bust seven times in its history; now thinks it is worth Ā£5 billion! If they don’t make another Bond movie with an AM featured in it; wait for China to buy it from the Italians at a heavy discount.
September 19, 2018
acorn
Oh dear
UK car manufacturers look to INCREASE UK component sourcing from 25% to 40% SMMT website quote , so I guess that answers your question
September 18, 2018
Dr Redwood, it is not helpful to Mrs May to point out that her elaborate obfuscatory Chequers proposal addresses non existent problems. How can she otherwise claim any credit? In her version of Project Fear, UK must be seen to be thinking outside the box by having inappropriate and whacky solutions to problems. In cases where there is no problem the trick is to create one, then solve it in a way nobody else would dream of. It is vital to maintain the illusion of supporting Brexit while in fact doing everything to ensure the continuation of technocratic supranational government by the EU.
September 18, 2018
Again – it is not about tariffs. BMW does not want tariffs but it could cope with them. The problem with Brexit has always been about non-tariffs barriers, and this is where your whole argument falls down.
At the moment non-tariffs barriers are negligible because a brake disc, or an exhaust pipe, or a steering wheel imported into the UK will be essentially the same as one made here. And it will be essentially the same because the regulations surrounding manufacture, safety, standards etc are essentially the same. And they are essentially the same because we all work together in Brussels to make them the same.
The whole point of Brexit is that you are rejecting the shares rules. And yet it is the shares rules which facilitate seemless trade. And, no, Canada does not have seemless trade with the EU – it just has few tariffs. Products are still different. They are still checked.
It is this ideological inconsistency which makes Brexit such a mess.
September 18, 2018
Shared, not shares. Obvs.
September 19, 2018
Quality standards and specications of products are certificated by the buying company on the selling company.
This not done by the EU
You show a complete ignorance of how manufacturing businesses and supply chains operate.
September 18, 2018
Absolutely right. The anger from Remainers when you suggest we should allow goods in free of tariffs is enlightening. So many really have no clue about business.
September 18, 2018
BMW or rather the Quandts family behind it will wish to protect the many years of very healthy profits made in supplying both car and motorcycles to the UK. The reasons behind keeping Mini in the UK largely related to labour cost/union issues in Germany (read EU)and today those reasons are even stronger. I suspect the company will take time to see how a Britain out of the EU (if it happens) will move on tax etc before making serious decisions about plant relocation.
September 18, 2018
I see Vince Cable’s revving himself up, again.
He somehow thinks he’s got authority to bypass the electorate in demanding the PM to hold a second referendum.
Much as I loathe liberals, I do worry for the old boy. I think he’ll do himself a mischief one of these days.
If by chance you’re reading this, Vince, you need to wind down a bit.
Brexit will happen on schedule, and will pan out how it pans out. You do not need to intervene.
September 19, 2018
And Clegg saying that the other EU 27 will be willing to extend the Article 50 deadline.
Does this help?
In my book extending uncertainty is the worst of all options.
September 19, 2018
Our media is like Mr Hammond. No sense, of fun
September 19, 2018
Iām sure the UK Government has no intention of holding up imports from the EU but I can see a scenario where this isnāt the case in the other direction and the queues trying to get UK exports through the French border controls eventually block up Calais, Dover etc and affect our ability to import goods. It just takes a few b****y minded French customs officials to block up the Channel. We canāt send everything through Ostend (Belgium) instead.
September 19, 2018
Then BMW is addressing the wrong government.
September 19, 2018
The Government could do I lot of things to stop Project Fear. It chooses not to. What does that tell us? They want to thwart Brexit and keep us closely tied to the EU. They even want to put this abysmal deal into a binding treaty that we cannot get out of. Just like all the other EU treaties signed on our behalf we are being conned again by our elected representatives. Most MPs havenāt got a clue about what the EU is and where it wants to take the European people.
September 19, 2018
Rest assured I’ll never buy another vehicle made in the EU. If I won one I’d sell it from the get go. Like my shopping trends I’ll always buy Brit and avoid EU products where possible. Aldi do lovely funny things in a tin made in Turkey and I love fine beans from Kenya and Asian funny things as well like rice and noodles. I pickled 10 big Kilner jars of walnuts ready for Xmas that would sell for circa 100 quid in Sainsburys!
Anyway, I’ve had my fun! God knows us true leavers need some!!!!