Thread by @MoreBrexitFacts

Let’s have a short thread about this famous WTO option and demolish the myth this could work well for #brexit U.K. once and for all.

We will use two of Britain’s favourite exports to France as examples

Tiptree Marmalade €6.95 and the Nissan Qashqai €25,000

Tiptree Marmalade is an example of ‘innovative jam’. This is no joke! @LiamFox ‘s Department of International Trade has held up this product as an example of how our economy could thrive

There is no doubt a demand for high end luxury British food stuff in France as there is all over the world. A five star hotel abroad that wanted to impress its sophisticated customers, would no doubt put Tiptree Jams on the table. And a few hundred Essex workers will be employed.

You can pack this stuff in cartons. Put it on a pallet. Fill out a customs form and ship around the world in a ‘ship and forget’ kind of way.

Let’s consider the case of one of Sunderland’s famous exports the Nissan Qashqai SUV crossover that sells well on the European continent and retails between 25-35 k.

In fact more than half of all UK built Nissans is exported to EU.

It’s the reason why Nissan builds them in UK.

I’ve been to the Nissan Dealership in Paris to get a quote for a Nissan built in Britain

The salesperson took me through three pages of options:
-petrol diesel Hybrid
-engine size
-luxury level
-on board equipment
-paint colour and matching trim
-metallic paint
-finance options

It’s not just choosing the options which now is a fixture of buying a new car.

An equal amount is spent agreeing the finance package. How much money as a deposit
Trade in value of old car
How many months to repay the loan

It is said car manufacturers make more from financing

The actual production of cars today is not very profitable as the margins are extremely tight.

This has led to a system of ‘Just in Time’ manufacturing (JIT)

This means that when the order of the French dealer is received it is scheduled for production on a particular date.

In JIT manufacturing orders on all suppliers are made by complex computer systems to have the right engine, automatic or manual gearbox, interior trim etc. all arrive a day if not hours before the part is actually needed to go in the car of the French customer being assembled.

Many parts of U.K. built cars contain parts like starter engines, tyres, batteries that come from EU suppliers.

It is clear to see, that any disruption in supply lines will have a detrimental effect on the assembly line of a modern efficient car plant.

This problem cannot be solved by building more warehouses and increase stocks of intermediate stock. The cost of holding 20 engines when the customer only needs only one of them would wipe out any profit at Nissan.

#Brexit supporting economists that say they know examples of JIT manufacturing across multiple continents using just WTO rules are lying.

Either that or they don’t understand modern integrated supply lines with JIT manufacturing.

Also profitable financial services would end!

What would happen under a no deal WTO #brexit is that Nissan would just move its plant to the continent.

City would lose financial services not covered

Britain has to think if it wants to be a nation of shopkeepers or a country that builds trains planes and automobiles

/ends