The single market is priority No1 for German businesses
GERMAN business leaders have rubbished UK Ministers’ claims that British manufacturers will help secure a Brexit trade deal.
And they have warned Theresa May it will be “extraordinarily difficult” for her to protect UK industry.
Ministers have claimed that German carmakers – along with other key European industries such as French farmers and winemakers – would lobby their governments to agree a comprehensive deal which maintains tariff-free trade between the UK and the other 27 EU member states.
But the leaders of two of Germany’s main business organisations said the priority for them was maintaining the integrity of the single market.
Dieter Kempf, president of the BDI, the federation of German industries, said: “Europe must maintain the integrity of the single market and its four freedoms – goods, capital, services, and labour.
“It is the responsibility of the British Government to limit the damage on both sides of the English Channel. Over coming months, it will be extraordinarily difficult to avert negative effects on British businesses in particular.”
Ingo Kramer, president of the BDA, the confederation of German employers’ associations, added: “The single market is one of the major assets of the EU. Access to it requires the acceptance of all four single-market freedoms.
“The UK will remain a very important partner for us but we need a fair deal for both sides respecting this principle. The cohesion of the remaining 27 EU member states has highest priority.”
Their intervention comes after May received a boost at the G20 summit, with US President Donald Trump highlighting the prospect of a trade deal with the UK.
May said it was a “powerful vote of confidence” in Britain that Trump and other world leaders have shown with their “strong desire” to strike new trade deals after Brexit.
The PM said she is “optimistic and positive” about a future pact with the US after Trump said he believed an agreement could be reached “very, very quickly”.
Trump hailed the “very special relationship” he had developed with the PM.
He said he expected an agreement on new trading arrangements with Britain to be “very powerful”.
May insisted she was confident the UK would also secure a good deal with the EU “because it’s not just about what’s in the interests of the UK, it’s about what’s in the interests of the remaining 27 members states in the EU and I think it is in the interests of both sides to have that good trade agreement”.
She added: “But I’m also optimistic about the opportunities that we will see in the rest of the world.”