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Airbus CEO warns it could move in event of no-deal Brexit

Published:Friday | January 25, 2019 | 12:22 AM
An anti-Brexit demonstrator waves to traffic alongside a banner tied to railings outside parliament in London yesterday. The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, is rejecting the possibility of putting a time limit on the ‘backstop’ option for the Irish border, saying it would defeat the purpose.
An anti-Brexit demonstrator waves to traffic alongside a banner tied to railings outside parliament in London yesterday. The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, is rejecting the possibility of putting a time limit on the ‘backstop’ option for the Irish border, saying it would defeat the purpose.

LONDON (AP):

The chief executive of Airbus warned yesterday that the aviation giant could move its UK operations out of Britain if the country leaves the European Union without a deal on trade relations, in one of the starkest assessments yet of the economic impact of a no-deal Brexit.

Tom Enders said Brexit threatened to destroy a century of development in Britain’s world-leading aviation industry.

Business leaders have expressed growing frustration at the lack of progress in securing a Brexit deal before Britain’s scheduled March 29 exit from the bloc. Last week, British lawmakers threw out the divorce deal Prime Minister Theresa May had struck with the European Union, and attempts to find a replacement are gridlocked.

UK firms are bracing for disruption amid fears that a no-deal Brexit will cause economic chaos by eliminating trade agreements and imposing tariffs, customs checks and other barriers between the UK and the EU, its biggest trading partner.

“Aerospace is a long-term business and we could be forced to re-direct future investments in the event of a no-deal Brexit,” Enders said. “And make no mistake; there are plenty of countries out there who would love to build the wings for Airbus aircraft.”

Airbus has more than 14,000 employees in Britain – with 110,000 more working in jobs supported by Airbus programmes – as well as some £ 6 billion (US$7.83 billion) in annual turnover.

“Please don’t listen to the Brexiteers’ madness which asserts that, because we have huge plants here, we will not move and we will always be here,” Enders said in a statement released by Airbus. “They are wrong.”

Warnings from businesses have grown louder in recent days, but the Airbus comments are notable because of the tone – and the pointed reference about a willingness to pull up stakes and go.

The Bank of England has said that in a worst-case scenario, a sudden Brexit with no deal on future relations could trigger a recession, with Britain’s economy shrinking eight per cent within months as unemployment and inflation soar.

Since her Brexit deal was rejected by Parliament last week, May has been holding talks with government and opposition politicians, business representatives and trade union leaders. But she has shown little appetite for radically altering her Brexit plan, or lifting her insistence that Brexit means leaving the EU’s single market and customs union.

Instead, she hopes to win lawmakers’ backing for her deal after securing changes from the EU to a contentious measure designed to ensure an open border between EU member Ireland and the UK’s Northern Ireland.