Thread by @uk_domain_names

Timely to look at the impacts of Brexit on the motor industry...
- Breaks just-in-time production model due to shipping/border delays
- Tariffs on finished vehicles
- Tariffs on car parts
- Rules of origin issues
- Non-tariff barriers to the movements of components

- Dual testing/certification regimes
- Dual intellectual property regimes
- Loss of Horizon 2020 funding (10s of £millions went to collaborative projects with auto firms for new research)
- Foreign exchange uncertainties
- Harder to recruit EU workers (10% of manufacturing staff)

- Loss of preferrential access to certain markets because of loss of trade deals and trade facilitation arrangements
- Dual environmental regimes (UK & EU)
- Uncertainty making future model production decisions more difficult
- Loss of influence over future regulations/standards

None of the above apply to the EU27, or to any country other than the UK. All apply to us in a no-deal Brexit, and most apply under any form of Brexit (besides, a Brexit with a transition period is just no-deal deferred).

Now try saying "it's nothing to do with Brexit"!

To expand briefly on the uncertainty, manufacturers have to make production decisions 3-5 years ahead (sometimes longer) because they have to reconfigure factories, move equipment, build new facilities etc. (Honda for instance has a new Civic coming in 2023 it has to plan for.)

But no, Honda's decision is nothing about Brexit, apparently (even though they have warned again and again and again in the last 3 years) Could it be that their CEO, already facing a huge backlash, opted not to lick the third rail in his opening statement about the plant closing?