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The head of the UK’s main employers’ organization has stepped up pressure on the government to conclude trade talks with the EU so the country can emerge from the “suspended animation” of the past four years.
Reflecting on her five years as the CEO of the CBI, Dame Carolyn Fairbairn said her biggest regret was that the issue had not been resolved before and warned ministers that companies dealing with Covid-19 were not prepared for a Brexit. Lasted.
Talks between London and Brussels have intensified in recent days as negotiators grapple with issues such as fisheries and state aid.
Fairbairn, who will resign next week, said: “What is painful is that it has taken so long to reach a resolution. I think we’ll get a deal. The remaining problems seem solvable. “
The CBI’s first CEO said she had just started in the job when David Cameron announced in February 2016 that a referendum would be held in June of that year.
That was the moment when everything changed, Fairbairn said. “I realized that there was going to be an extraordinary debate, not only about the EU, but also about the kind of economy we had created and the kind of country we had become.”
Fairbairn said that issues that arose as a result of the 2008-09 financial crash, such as justice and inequality, were tied to the debate over the UK’s relationship with the EU.
The CBI campaigned for an affirmative vote in the referendum, but Fairbairn says the employers’ organization has always accepted the result.
“At our first meeting of the presidential committee after the referendum, the debate was not about trade or tariffs, but about what the result said about business and its relationship with the British public, and what we do about it.”
“Our position has not really changed since June 24, 2016. We fully accept the referendum result and never support a second referendum. We have campaigned for a good agreement that protects jobs from day one.
“That [departure from the EU] it has had a momentum of its own. It was almost a perfect storm. The economy has gone into suspended animation as we solve this seismic problem. I hope we can have a resolution so we can move on. “
Despite his optimism that a deal would be reached, Fairbairn did not rule out the collapse of the talks, an outcome he described as “very challenging” for CBI member companies.
With much of the country facing new restrictions from Covid-19, the CBI said that many companies were backtracking in their Brexit preparations. He urged the government to create a working group to speed up preparations as soon as an agreement is reached.
An agreement would still mean radical changes for business, but it would be “much better” than no agreement, he said.
Duty-free trade would be the difference between companies in the automotive sector that stay or go to the UK. “The automotive sector is 40 times bigger than fishing,” he added.
A deal would also ease customs procedures and give the UK a base from which to build future deals that would boost key sectors such as financial services, which Fairbairn said had been largely absent from the current negotiations. “A deal is vastly better than no deal.”
Despite short-term challenges, Fairbairn said Britain would make Brexit a success. “Companies will do everything possible to make the most of it. There will be areas to explore. There will be areas where it will be good to align with the EU, but when it comes to artificial intelligence and the industries of the future, we could find new ways to shape the regulatory environment. “
Brexit aside, he said businesses also had to deal with a second wave of Covid-19 infections. Fairbairn said the UK got a glimpse of what the recovery would look like in the summer, but now things were looking bleaker and there was “a mountain to climb.”
The CBI director said she was especially concerned about young people, who had been hit the hardest by the Covid-19 recession and needed better training, more job opportunities and a wider range of higher and further education courses to give them a better chance of finding a job.
He added: “We are not epidemiologists, we put health first. But we need a short-term plan to keep most of the economy open. It has to be evidence-based and depend on really clear levels. “
Changes made last week by the chancellor to the employment support plan to make it more generous had prompted some companies to rethink the layoffs, but there were sectors of the UK, including live events and aviation, facing serious problems. .
Fairbairn said: “We are going to see major layoffs. It will be difficult “.
