Selling to the European market has been a vital factor in the rebirth of the British car industry. Now anti-Europeans admit the sector would face tariffs is we left the EU- and they don't care.
By Will Cousins
The rebirth of the car industry is one of Britain’s great business stories. From the ashes of the long death of Rover, a new industry has emerged- making volume and luxury models, SUVs and sports, Formula One racers and vans. From Bridgend to Sunderland, and from Essex to Merseyside, 730,000 people are employed in the industry. It accounts for 4% of British GDP. Incredibly, Britain now produces more cars than France, despite the fact that our industry is entirely foreign owned.
The sector is dependent on EU membership. In 2013, 77% of British cars were exported, and 49% of them went to the EU. That adds up to £22.8bn. Some manufacturers are here purely because of the European market- 71% of cars manufactured in Nissan’s plant in Sunderland go to the EU, compared to just 19% sold in the home market. Access to the Single Market is vitally important for foreign manufacturers, as is the ability of the UK government to support them in the Brussels corridors of power.
If anyone should be listened to on this issue, it is the manufacturers themselves. Most recently, the President of Ford Europe told the Today programme that EU membership is “critical” for Britain. In the past couple of years, these sentiments have been expressed by the CEO of Nissan, the UK chief executive of Hyundai, the head of sales of BMW and the UK managing director of Honda.
The best point was made yesterday by, rather surprisingly, Matthew Elliott of Business for Britain, described by the New Statesman as the “in utero” Out campaign. He told the BBC’S Daily Politics show that: “it is fair to say that the car industry would face 10% tariffs”. This is the rate applied to Japanese manufacturers.
It should not have escaped anybody’s notice that Japanese manufacturers base themselves in Britain to avoid tariffs. By basing their manufacturing operations here, they can export to the rest of the EU unhindered. Were we to leave, they could not. Elliott said, in the same programme, that were a referendum on EU membership to be held today, he would vote to leave.
To blithely support leaving the EU in full knowledge of what it would mean for a vital strategic industry, for so many peoples’ livelihoods, and without having any plan for dealing with it, is extraordinary. Business is coming to realise that Britain’s anti-Europeans are not impartial rationalists; they want us out at any cost. If they show so little consideration towards such a big industry, why should smaller ones feel any confidence in what they are selling?