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Japan’s two biggest automakers, Toyota and Nissan, will ask the UK to reimburse them for additional customs charges incurred if the UK government fails to reach a Brexit trade deal with the European Union, the Nikkei financial daily reported on Monday. .
The companies want payments to cover the additional 10 percent tax on Britain’s car imports that the EU would impose if Britain leaves the EU without a deal, the Nikkei said, without citing sources.
Officials at automakers declined to comment on the report, although Nissan raised concerns about the potential impact of a no-deal Brexit on its business.
“We urge UK and EU negotiators to work together to achieve an orderly and balanced Brexit that will continue to foster mutually beneficial trade,” Nissan said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday he did not particularly want the Brexit transition period, which runs until the end of the year, to run out without a
Failure
trade agreement in place, but that Britain could live with such an outcome.
However, the Nikkei report highlights how the lack of agreement on a new business relationship could lead foreign companies operating in Britain to reconsider the viability of operations in the face of additional tariffs that erode profitability and customs controls and regulations that slowed down the operations.
Toyota operates a plant in Derbyshire, in central England, and produced approximately 8% of the 1.52 million cars made in Britain in 2018. It also produces engines at a factory in Wales.
Nissan has a manufacturing plant in Sunderland, in the northeast, employing 7,000 people. That factory would be “unsustainable” if Britain leaves the EU without a trade deal, Nissan said in June.
Nissan said in March that it was moving ahead with plans to build its new Qashqai sport utility vehicle in Sunderland. When it first announced the £ 52 million (€ 57 million) investment in 2016, the automaker said it had obtained assurances from the British government that Brexit would not affect its competitiveness. – Reuters
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