THOUGHT

56 SPECIAL REPORT
SPECIAL REPORT
57
Ashley Shackleton recently attended a business expo held by Shropshire Chamber of Commerce. Pictured at the event are Richard Sheehan,
chief executive of Shropshire Chamber of Commerce, Nick Jones, Corinne Brown, Paul Cook and Rebecca White
t “It is clear that there will be no offthe-shelf
solution. The UK is looking for a
bespoke relationship with the European
Union.”
So will it be the so-called ‘soft Brexit’
along similar lines to the arrangement with
Norway – much like being a full EU member
without being part of the decision making
process, including free movement and
membership of the single market and trade
deals?
Will it be a nudge further down the line
like Turkey, which has a customs union,
and is unable to do its own unilateral trade
deals?
Might we go for a simple free trade
agreement along the Swiss model, which
wouldn’t include membership of the single
market?
Or is it going to be the all-out ‘hard
Brexit’, which means operating under World
Trade Organisation rules.
Ashley says: “This hard Brexit is I think
what all sides want to avoid, with potentially
10% tariffs on things like cars, and no single
market access to services.
“But it would mean that we would have
the ability as the UK to do free trade deals
with other countries.
“It is important to say that if we stay in
the European Economic Area, and in the
customs union, we will not be able to do
unilateral trade deals with third countries
like the United States.
“There is a lot of talk about this, but
actually we don’t have the clarity enough to
know whether the UK will have the ability to
do those trade deals.”
Since the referendum back in June,
the BCC has been carrying out extensive
research of its members, while getting to
know new parliamentary teams, and taking
part in round-table meetings with senior
Government figures, including Chancellor
Phillip Hammond.
Sue Steadman of RBS, Leah Whitley, Teresa Rowe, Angela Lewis of KRL and Justine Vaughan
of Triangle HR at a Shropshire Chamber of Commerce event, attended by Ashley Shackleton
Areas of most concern among
businesses, Ashley reports, include the
impact on EU funding and regulations, and
the future immigration status of EU nationals
living and working in the UK.
“This is where we are focusing our
policy attention. We have actually been very
vocal about the status of EU nationals who
are living and working here at the moment.
“Forget from a human level in terms
of giving these people certainty who may
have been living here for a number of years
in good faith - we are actually telling the
Government that this is bad for business.
“In all the survey work we have done
over many years, skills is always one of
the top issues, and they rely a lot on labour
from EU nationals. The uncertainty at the
moment is not good for business. More
needs to be done to bolster confidence and
incentivise investment.
“Businesses very much look at the
immediate future, and see the instability of
the exchange rate as of critical concern.
Depending on what business you are, a
weaker pound could be good or bad, but
we want a stable currency, not one that
fluctuates.”
Ashley says it’s also crucial over the
coming months that the Government is clear
on exactly what businesses want – and
need - from a post-Brexit Britain.
“The Government needs to learn about
how they engage with business, to make
sure they know exactly, in a quite detailed
way, what we want as a country.
“That means going systematically
through sectors, and size of business, and
quite a lot of engagement with ourselves,
and other business bodies, to ensure that
they know our views.”
As the fifth largest economy in the
world, and a global leader in areas such as
finance, pharmaceuticals and aerospace,
the UK picture is ‘quite complex’, he
acknowledges.
It’s vital, Ashley adds, to ensure that
financial companies still feel able to be
based in the UK – particularly bearing in
mind that many Swiss banks currently have
operstions in London, merely to gain access
to EU passporting rights.
And so, to the deal itself. Even when it’s
on the table, Ashley warns that it will be far
from plain sailing to get the package ratified
– as the Canadian trade deal with the EU
has shown.
Many years in the making, it had to go
through every single parliament of every
single EU nation – and in some cases,
their regional decision-making bodies too.
Remember Wallonia . . . no-one outside
Belgium had heard of the place until it tried
to block the Canadian deal!
Ashley Shackleton is always vocal about the benefits the UK has trading on a global stage
“You can see the problems that might
arise from this. That unfortunately is a bit of
a warning that any deal made between the
EU and the UK may be extremely tricky.
“The practical side of supporting
businesses – getting them exporting,
is extremely important at this time. We
actually need to put a lot more emphasis on
that, even beyond our negotiations with the
EU about what we are going to get, which is
a few years down the line.”
“There really is potential
here for businesses to
look to international
markets to grow”
Ashley says he is seeing examples
of companies now looking at export
opportunities in South East Asia –
something they hadn’t been doing before
the referendum result.
“Whitehall needs to change how it
approaches things. We have a Department
for International Trade which has been set
up with the sole goal of going out there
and getting free trade agreements. This
new department is going to have to work
across Whitehall to get all the views, as well
as with stakeholders, to make sure they
negotiate on our behalf.”
“The Government needs to always keep
in mind what our economy needs. Is it just
high skills, professors and scientists, or
actually do we need low skills as well?”
The BCC has downgraded its growth
forecast for the UK in 2017 to one per
cent, rising to 1.8% in 2018. But Ashley
acknowledges that the true picture of the
economy’s strength will only start to emerge
once Theresa May triggers Article 50, and
the exit door swings ajar.
He ends, though, on a positive note.
“We are going through a period of great
uncertainty, and through partnership with
Government and chambers of commerce,
there really is potential here for businesses
to look to international markets to grow.
“We can all be very static through this
uncertain period, but when we look back
even at the last slowdown in 2007 and 2008
we hear great stories about businesses
who were creative in that period, and saw
opportunities where others didn’t.”