Preferred Deal Means Nothing.

[cassa333]

So Airbus and BMW want the government to clarify what they want as an exit deal from the EU.

Easy peasy I can tell them that.

Full trade access, including financial services. What’s not to want in that. Which government is going to not want as free a trade deal as possible?

However what we want and what the EU are willing to ‘give’ are two entirely different things. So rather than just slam the UK perhaps they should also be lobbying the EU to make trade, in all its guises, as easy as possible.

But as Airbus is owned by EU countries they have no impetus to do that. They will win either way because they can just trott off back to a European country.

[New Judge]

Strangely Airbus, whilst a European company, sources a considerable chunk of the parts for its aircraft from outside the EU. General Electric make many of the engines which power Airbus aircraft. GE is er.. a US company and the US has no trade agreement with the EU. But Airbus is perfectly capable of using US manufactured components.

There is a big difference between what company bosses say they will do and what actually happens in circumstances such as this. In my view there is no way that Airbus will quit the UK. It has far too much investment tied up here (in both its aircraft and space divisions) and has continued to announce further investment even since June 2016. It is very spooky that both the boss of Airbus and that of BMW (who make that iconic "British" car, the Mini, in Oxford) announced their veiled threat on the very day that a number of people gathered in London to demand a "Peoples' Vote" (which, in case they have forgotten, was held on June 23rd 2016). Pure coincidence, I'm sure.

[cassa333]

I tend to agree with you NJ.

My brother works for Airbus space division and they were frightened into voting remain.

As you say they source a lot of components from outside the EU so one wonders at their motivation. One would have thought that a link outside the EU would in fact be useful!!

[Old_Geezer]

They claim to want the impossible, information on how the negotiations will pan out. Their crystal ball is as good as the government's. Meanwhile the EU and the remainer protesters do their utmost to force a 'no deal', and by issuing threats these two commercial concerns merely support them. We must not be vulnerable to merchants' threats. Merchants are not to be the controlling elite; the people must, and indeed have, decided.

[youngmafbog]

Of course these two want a 'free' trade deal. That way the tax payers pick up the tarriffs (as in the EU contribution) rather than the individual company on its goods.

The vast majority of British companies dont deal with Europe so we should not lean towards the few big corporations that do.

[Jackdaw33]

This 'Project Fear', chapter 52, is becoming rather tedious. As the Moody Blues sang,'If you really want to go, go now'.

[Zacs-Master]

Leaving the EU leaves Airbus in a very strange position. It was ruled last month that the subsidies which the EU paid them were illegal. Some have speculated that this leaves the gate open for the US to charge billions in import tarrifs (the action was brought by Boing.....a US based company....and their only serious competitor).

I’m not sure what would have happened had the ruling not been made until after Brexit. A non EU workforce receiving subsidies from the EU?

Anyway..... I think the fact that the ruling means Airbus (or its parent company) faces an uncertain future in any case and may have prompted the cry for the British Govt to get their house in order, to at least sort that side of things out.

[ToraToraTora]

why are they asking us it's the EUSSR that are playing silly bu663rs.

[Zacs-Master]

Yeah. Cassa made that point in the OP.

[ludwig]

I think they were talking about moving production to China.

They're going to feel really silly when they find out China's not in the EU either.

[cassa333]

LOL Ludwig