Business leaders from the UK and other EU countries have made representations to the the British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday that Brexit negotiations need to be progressing more swiftly to inspire business confidence.
Business groups met the PM at Downing Street with Business Secretary Greg Clark, Brexit Secretary David Davis and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Barclay.
The CBI and the Institute of Directors were there with business organisations from France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic and Belgium.
The current delays, and perception of stagnation, are damaging business confidence, they say, and greater clarity of the eventual deal needs to be known much sooner rather than later.
The head of the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), Carolyn Fairbairn said that the British government needs to “pick up the pace”.
Emma Marcegaglia, president of BusinessEurope, organised the meeting and she said: “We told them that they’ve lost a year because nothing happened. Now you have two weeks in which you have to be very clear.” She also told the ministers that “now you have to go from kind words to concrete, clear proposals.”
A Number 10 spokesperson said of the session: “The prime minister reassured the group that Brexit meant the UK was leaving the EU, not Europe, and reiterated her ambition for free and frictionless trade with the EU27 once the UK departs. She also expressed her commitment to giving businesses the certainty they need by agreeing a time-limited implementation period as soon as possible.”
There can be little disagreement that the Brexit negotiations aren’t going terribly well. Whether your want to stay or go, better progress should have been made by now.
If you’re concerned or worried about what the outcome of Brexit might be for your ecommerce and marketplace business then don’t forget our webinar with WORLDFIRST this week called Brexit, Sterling and You: what now for Britain’s importers and exporters?
One Response
Had my first email of brexit failing one of my good suppliers
We regret to tell you that ********** will be closing at the end of January 2018.
Due to market conditions and current poor exchange rates, we have sadly decided that we must wind-up the company over the next few months.
It is certainly sad to see the end of a business which has been trading since the early 70’s and which we purchased 15 years ago