23 JUNE 2017 • 7:03AM
ALLISTER HEATH
The UK’s booming car manufacturing sector is becoming more self-reliant CREDIT: PA
Brexit could be terrible news for the car industry – the German car industry, that is. The hit to German carmakers from a “no-deal”, so-called “hard Brexit”, characterised by the introduction of WTO tariffs on imports, could be as catastrophic as the impact of the financial crisis and lead to a massive reduction in its trade surplus and huge, politically traumatic job cuts in its core industry. That, at least, is the message from a devastating study published by Deloitte’s German unit, one that will hopefully encourage all sides to get real about the need to maintain free trade when the UK leaves the EU.
Of course, the imposition of trade barriers between UK and EU trade would also be terrible news for British manufacturers and consumers. It is imperative to avoid a trade war: protectionism is a brain-dead, economically illiterate policy that impoverishes all sides. There is no reason why...
