Japan’s two largest automakers, Toyota and Nissan, will seek financial compensation from the British government should London not reach an agreement in its ongoing BREXIT negotiations with the European Union.
The plan was revealed in an article in the Japanese language Nikkei newspaper yesterday.
It is reported that both Toyota and Nissan would seek financial payments to cover an anticipated 10% import tax the EU plans to impose in the case of a no-deal BREXIT.
Neither automaker would initially confirm the claims made in the newspaper, although Nissan has said “We urge (the) UK and EU negotiators to work collaboratively towards an orderly, balanced Brexit that will continue to encourage mutually beneficial trade.”
Popular sentiment in the UK is increasingly leaning toward the UK being able to live without a deal with the UK, and this was backed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently saying the country could indeed live with such an outcome.
In recent weeks, discussions on trade deals with Japan and the U.S. – two of Britain’s largest trading partners – have made headlines across financial newspaper mastheads.
Both Toyota and Nissan have long based portions of their EU operations in the UK with Toyota represented at a large plant in the central English county of Derbyshire, and another facility in Wales.
The company produces an estimated 122,000 vehicles in the UK each year.
Nissan employs over 7,000 in the northeast of England, and earlier in the year indicated they were prepared to leave the UK if no deal is reached.
The company has already said that the latest model Qashqai SUV would be produced in the UK.
