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IN LITTLE MORE THAN TWO YEARS TIME – WHEN THE
UK EXITS THE EU, AND WITH THE TRADE THREATS
FROM EU LEADERS RINGING IN THEIR EARS – MANY
BRITISH PEOPLE WILL WONDER WHY WE DIDN’T
LEAVE THE CLUB MANY YEARS EARLIER
Frankfurt rings hollow. Most obviously,
all of the clients are located in London,
and very few in Europe, which is why
the sector first grew up in London in the
first place.
Overall, what pro-EU organisations
such as the EFF and the CBI don’t seem
to realise is that around half of British
engineering and manufacturing is
already owned by foreign companies.
Most are highly profitable. In total
foreign firms own more than £120bn
in UK-based industrial assets. Giving
them up on the command of some EU
politician is unthinkable.
Above all, all of world’s high growth
markets for UK exports in the future
lie outside the EU – in the Middle East,
South Asia, Australasia and North
America. These are the places where
www.smeweb.com
JCB excavators, Rolls-Royce cars, Glaxo’s
Hepatitis C and Aids vaccines, and much
more, are most highly prized.
By contrast, doing business in the EU
since the UK joined in 1974 has been
little more than a nightmare. Our total
trade deficit with EU nations since we
joined now stands at more than £300bn,
or the equivalent of one third of our
national debt.
We buy much from them; they buy
little from us. The UK and Netherlands
are the only truly open markets in
Europe. All others are protected by stiff
regulations, language restrictions, city
obstructiveness, and often ferociously
backed by substantial secret subsidies.
Ever tried buying a German football club;
tried getting a contract with a French
engineering company; tried opening
a hotel in southern Italy? Forget it: the
barriers are insurmountable.
The best aspect about Brexit is the
way in which it will encourage – or
even force – British exporters to re-
discover their true markets in our
traditional regions of the world.
Some of the best and most
entrepreneurial businessmen in Britain
supported Brexit. These include Tim
Martin, of pub chain Wetherspoon's; boss
of Staffordshire digger firm JCB and Tory
donor Lord Anthony Bamford, and home
appliances pioneer Sir James Dyson.
Export markets and opportunities for
our SMEs will boom – as never before.
In fact, they are already. The British
Hovercraft Company reported plenty
of fresh interest its sports craft when
interested buyers from leisure parks in
the US and Brazil realised they would
not now be subject to heavy EU tariffs.
Pro-EU organisations such as the EFF
and the CBI have little knowledge of
the tens of thousands of fast-growing
SMEs which are logged and monitored
in our 58,000-SME database, the Gibson
Index, which has investigated ground-
floor developments in the UK economy
since 2001.
At most overseas trade shows the
excellence, sophistication and originality
of UK SMEs never ceases to astonish.
Years ago it was a Scottish security
firm whose software tracked down the
Washington Sniper when the FBI didn’t
have a clue where to look.
Another firm, Subacoustech, near
Portsmouth, undertook all the difficult
development work for the US Navy’s
high energy gun. Lastly, let’s remember
that all of the legal and regulatory work
for the Euro 20 years ago was executed
by professional services firms not in
Frankfurt but the City of London.
In little more than two years time –
when the UK exits the EU, and with the
trade threats from EU leaders ringing
in their ears – many British people will
wonder why we didn’t leave the club
many years earlier.
SME
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