[pip08456]

Originally Posted by jonbxx

Last week, I had the nice opportunity to be in another EU country for a global meeting and Brexit came up a few times, I can tell you! Here's what I learned from the 'other side';

From a business point of view, the company I work for is regarded as a critical material supplier to our customers so we need to show that we are prepared for any interruptions in manufacturing up to and including complete destruction of our manufacturing plant. Because of this,we store a huge reserve of finished goods off site that isn't touched in case of a disaster.

However, we also need to assess our critical raw material suppliers to ensure our continuity of supply. If raw materials are currently sourced from countries and/or areas that are at risk of interruption of supply, they are closely looked at. We hold large stocks of critical raw materials, especially from countries at risk. Depending on the country, we are also looking at second suppliers from other regions as a fall back position.

Since 2016, the UK is classed as a risk country. Our company sources a number of chemicals from the UK and second suppliers have been found for all of the critical chemicals sourced from the UK to cover any interruption in supply. In the risk management table, we are about equal with Chile right now which I thought was interesting.

Away from the business implications, the main theme from people I met was 'what are you lot playing at?'. This wasn't just from colleagues from other EU countries but people from the US, India, Australia and China. They couldn't understand why we would voluntarily make trade with our closest neighbours harder.

Of course, the people in my meeting are the 'intellectual elite' with many letters after names and high paying jobs. What was illuminating was the same conversation with my taxi driver back to the airport. After confirming which terminal I wanted, the next thing he said was 'so, Brexit then?'! He was asking a lot about what I thought was going to happen and what I thought in general. In return, I asked what he thought about the EU. His feedback was a few years ago, he wasn't in favour of being in the EU but he has softened since our decision to leave. He said the EU wasn't perfect but it was a 'cold world out there' (his words, not mine)

The country I was in was one of the 5 countries that pay a larger proportion of their GNI than the UK does by the way

Only Germany is a higher net payer than us.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48256318