Brexit: Delays on trade deal could be devastating, warns British Chambers of Commerce

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The British Chambers of Commerce will issue a fresh warning about the possible devastating impact of Brexit on UK companies if a trade deal with the EU is not agreed upon by the end of the year.

In a speech due to be given in Birmingham on Thursday, BCC director general Adam Marshall will urge both the UK Government and representatives of the EU to “strain every sinew to move ahead - and put trade and transition at the heart of negotiations by the end of 2017”.

“Further delays to trade and transition talks would create a lose-lose scenario for everyone with a stake in the game,” Mr Marshall will say, according to a pre-released statement.

“It would be unforgivable for politicians on either side of the Channel to privilege brinksmanship and disruption over thriving trade,” he will say, adding that in “in recent years, an entrepreneur could be forgiven for thinking that the British political establishment had turned lock stock and barrel against business”.

“While politicians exhort businesses to trade more overseas, new input costs are piled on firms year after year without a second thought, our trading infrastructure continues to creak at the seams, and party leaders compete with each other to demonstrate who can wag their finger most furiously at corporate Britain,” he will add.

Mr Marshall will call for a “simple, disciplined, long-term approach to supporting exports and investment” and will say that “leadership must come from the very top, with trade missions at the heart of every Cabinet minister's job description, rather than tacked on as a hastily-arranged afterthought”.

He will also warn of the risks of complacency, dubbing it “the single greatest enemy of our future success”.

“The wake-up calls of Brexit, stagnant growth in cross-border trade, greater automation and the rise of the twin forces of populism and protectionism, require us to work twice as hard to secure and grow our place at the heart of global trade,” he will say.

The BCC has been one of the most vocal business group’s to warn on the possible detrimental impact of Brexit.

Earlier this year it published a report, based on feedback from more than 400 businesses, in which it demanded that the timing of Brexit be pushed back if the Government proved unable to strike a comprehensive trade deal within the two-year negotiating period.

It has also repeatedly called on Westminster to minimise tariffs, avoid the introduction of costly non-tariff barriers, grandfather existing EU free trade agreements with third countries, and expand the trade mission programme.