[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Damien

We didn't get all these trade deals that were meant to materialise and we know trade with the EU dropped a lot. Seems pretty obvious that would impact our growth.

Things like manufacturing took the biggest hits, car production in this country has drastically gone down, presumably because those are harder to export now.

... shouldn't be as we have free trade with EU, albeit with some non-tariff downsides.

https://ukandeu.ac.uk/the-brexit-dea...uk-automotive/

That a trade deal has been at been agreed at the last minute between the UK and EU comes as a huge relief for manufacturing sectors like automotive, which would have faced tariffs of 10% on exports and imports in the event of no deal – an outcome widely viewed as potentially ‘devastating’ for the sector.

BMW for example recently stated that a no-trade deal scenario would push up costs by several hundred million euros, and that longer term it would look at where to make the Mini model.

It’s hoped that the deal now gives a green light to major investments in the UK that had been stalled amidst Brexit uncertainty, such as that by PSA in assembling the Vauxhall/Opel Astra at Ellesmere Port, and Nissan starting Qashqai production in 2021 at Sunderland. If so, that’s genuinely good news in securing a new round of model assembly at two plants at least.