Brexit Begins

[Aimless]

£33m Eurotunnel settlement: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a8802681.html

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[RandBlade]

Failing Grayling strikes again.

[Hazir]

Seems like any trade deal the UK will get from the US is one that makes America great again and the UK its vasal.

[RandBlade]

So like what Barnier is seeking for the EU?

[Aimless]

So like what Barnier is seeking for the EU?

Not even close. The EU always drives a hard bargain--as do almost all major economies, eg. Japan--but the US is in a league of its own. In this specific example, the EU will not require more or less complete surrender on the NHS & drug pricing, for example.

[RandBlade]

I was joking hence the wink.

I doubt the US will require surrender on the NHS and drug pricing, we'll see and can walk away if they do, but they have different types of deals with different nations. It doesn't need to be uniform.

[Aimless]

I was joking hence the wink.

I doubt the US will require surrender on the NHS and drug pricing, we'll see and can walk away if they do, but they have different types of deals with different nations. It doesn't need to be uniform.

Unless the relevant legislation has been repealed in recent years, US trade negotiators are required to seek to eliminate govt. price controls, reference pricing and other measures employed by most western countries to keep pharmaceutical costs down. This was an important reason why their FTA with Australia undermined the PBS.

[Hazir]

Also they demand rules against 'currency manipulation'.

[RandBlade]

This is amusing though I'm not sure about Corbyn as Gandalf.

[Aimless]

https://www.ft.com/content/368a3b68-...e-efab61506f44

Toyota warns no-deal Brexit threatens building new models in UK
Group says a hard EU exit would make it ‘extremely complicated’ to expand British factories

Peter Campbell, Motor Industry Correspondent, in Geneva MARCH 5, 2019

One of Toyota’s top executives has warned a no-deal Brexit would make it “extremely complicated” to build new models at its British plants in the latest blow to the health of the UK car industry.

The warning by Japan’s biggest carmaker that no deal would make it less likely it would manufacture additional models in the UK follows Nissan’s recent reversal of a 2016 decision to build a sport utility vehicle in Sunderland and Honda’s planned Swindon closure.

It also comes against a backdrop of steep falls in investment in the UK car industry.

“If we don’t have access to the European market without a specific border tax, it seems to be extremely complicated to think about . . . introduction of another model,” Didier Leroy, chairman of Toyota’s European operations, told the Financial Times.

He was not referring to replacing the Corolla, currently made at the Burnaston site in Derbyshire, but to adding new models to the plant.

Toyota has two factories in the UK, employing about 3,000 workers at its vehicle manufacturing plant in Burnaston and its engine production facility in Deeside in North Wales.

Mr Leroy stressed Toyota had “no plan today to withdraw from the UK and stop production”, but added that a hard exit from the EU would create a “mountain” of a challenge for its British plants to remain competitive.

He called a no-deal exit “terrible” for its UK operations.

It was “feasible” to keep Toyota’s UK plants open under a no-deal scenario, but he said the bar would “rise”. Tariffs and border checks with Europe would put its UK business under “even more pressure”.

New spending in Britain has fallen 90 per cent in the past five years, according to figures from industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, as carmakers and their suppliers delay or divert business decisions.

In February, Honda said it would close its Swindon car plant, and on Monday Japan’s ambassador to the UK Koji Tsuruoka told Sky News that other Japanese businesses might leave Britain if its relationship with the EU was not sufficiently smooth.

Carmakers constantly seek to improve the efficiency of their plants, often by adding additional models or increasing production, which leads to more jobs and supply contracts.

“We’re not using Toyota UK at its full capacity right now,” Mr Leroy said.

While he said there were no “short-term” plans to add vehicles to the site, a decision could be taken within the next decade to expand work at the facility.

“No deal is terrible, it will create big additional challenges to keep competitiveness,” he said.

Earlier this year, Toyota began making the new Corolla model in the UK following a £240m investment in Burnaston.

Mr Leroy added that the company’s investment in new machines at its UK site two years ago in preparations for building the model were made on the “trust” that the British government would achieve a deal with Europe.

More than 90 per cent of the vehicles made at Toyota’s Burnaston site are exported to Europe.

He said the spending was based on “significant trust in the UK that they would be able to achieve a good deal in Europe”.

Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, while Theresa May, prime minister, has attempted to pass a deal through parliament that would see some of the UK’s European access continue during a transitional phase.

Mr Leroy said the UK parliament had “to decide what’s best for employment” when assessing whether to leave the EU without a deal.

“Don’t create a huge mountain,” he added.

[Aimless]

And BMW: https://news.sky.com/story/bmw-may-s...rexit-11655739

[RandBlade]

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[Aimless]

Kinda meaningless.

[Aimless]

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It is fascinating to see just how fond they are of lying to the public.

[RandBlade]

Have you read the article?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...-the-euro.html

[Aimless]

The headline and tweets are misleading, and the Tories are doubling down on the misleading info.

[Aimless]

Japanese drugmaker moves European HQ from London over Brexit

A Japanese pharmaceutical company that based its European headquarters in London five years ago and was praised for doing so by then London mayor Boris Johnson, is now planning to move the base to the Netherlands in preparation for Brexit.

Shionogi’s planned move makes it the latest in a string of Japanese companies — including Panasonic and Sony — looking to restructure their European operations to insulate themselves from disruption caused by Britain’s departure from the EU.

Shionogi’s plans involve merging its UK-based operation with a Dutch subsidiary, according to people briefed on the matter. The change is not expected to create significant movements of staff, but will see the substantial financial dividends of Shionogi’s European operations bypassing London in favour of the new headquarters. The company declined to comment.

The shift followed signs that the Japanese tax authorities will treat such moves as domestic mergers rather than cross-border deals, in a move that will lower the tax liability for the company.

That could trigger a further rush of Japanese company moves in coming weeks, the tax experts added. The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency said in January that more than 250 companies were in discussions about Brexit-driven relocations.

Most of those Japanese companies moving headquarters were convinced to invest in the UK on the promise that it would be a stable, legally predictable gateway to Europe, with many basing themselves in the UK for decades.

Shionogi, however, was a relatively recent and enthusiastic arrival. The drugmaker said in the 2012 announcement of its new London base, that the office would “form a new era for the company as it expands its global business into Europe”. It added London was chosen because of its infrastructure, talent pool and easy access to Europe after an extensive review of potential locations across the continent.

In an effort to highlight the importance of Shionogi’s choice, Boris Johnson, then mayor of London, added his voice to the company’s announcement. The politician, who later became a leading voice in the campaign for the UK to leave the EU, said that Shionogi would benefit from “direct access to huge markets”, would be a “fantastic addition to London’s growing life sciences sector” and that his own plan to boost jobs and growth was underpinned by attracting ever more companies to the UK capital.

Mr Johnson did not comment on Shionogi’s plans to move.

Rajesh Agrawal, London’s deputy mayor for business, said Shionogi’s decision was further evidence that the government’s approach to Brexit was creating uncertainty. “In particular, the lack of firm proposals on how to protect services — which account for 92 per cent of London’s economy — is a major failure on the government’s behalf,” he said, adding that London was “always reinventing itself” and would continue to thrive in the long term.

Although Japanese companies have long seen such mergers as a neat solution to Brexit uncertainty, many have been hesitant because of the uncertainty about how Japanese tax authorities would view such arrangements.

Within the past two weeks, say tax experts, they have indicated that they may treat such pre-Brexit cross-border deals as “tax-qualified”, prompting Shionogi to advance its plans.

[Loki]

The Times of London strikes again.

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[RandBlade]

MV2 rejected by 149 votes. Tomorrow Parliament will vote overwhelmingly against No Deal, Thursday it will vote for an extension.

[Steely Glint]

This is bad comedy.

[Aimless]

No, no, you're just saying that because the leaders of Britain are playing out comedy tropes that have been exploited to death over several... centuries

[Flixy]

So presumably after today it will be official that the UK wants neither to stay in the EU, to have a deal, or to have no deal?

[Timbuk2]

So presumably after today it will be official that the UK wants neither to stay in the EU, to have a deal, or to have no deal?

Summed up perfectly.

[RandBlade]

So presumably after today it will be official that the UK wants neither to stay in the EU, to have a deal, or to have no deal?

Precisely.

[Aimless]

So presumably after today it will be official that the UK wants neither to stay in the EU, to have a deal, or to have no deal?

Brexit has been turned into the political equivalent of the Sphinx of Thebes. Time to let this absurd monster devour itself.

[Unheard Of]

It's time to consider partition for the UK. Everyone who believes in Brexit one side of the line, everyone else on the other. It will cause some disruption, but allows the will of all the people to be respected on this crucial issue.

P.S. We get London, Cambridge + Scotland

[Hazir]

Well. Our politicians are probably going to consent to an extension so the fun will go on.

[RandBlade]

Carole Codswallop is posting conspiracy theories on Twitter that an extension will be blocked by "fascists" in Italy and Poland to assist us in leaving and deny her a new vote.

[gogobongopop]

Nigel Farage has been lobbying for such a thing today.

[Steely Glint]

Carole Codswallop is posting conspiracy theories on Twitter that an extension will be blocked by "fascists" in Italy and Poland to assist us in leaving and deny her a new vote.

I don't think it's a 'conspiry theory' when the people in question just outright say that's what they're going to try and do?

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