Brexit Will Hurt Local Manufacturing But Consumers Will Get Cheaper Imported Cars

Concerns about Brexit continue to soar as it appears increasingly likely that the United Kingdom will have to leave the European Union without a deal.

Car manufacturers with production facilities across the UK have expressed serious concerns about a no-deal Brexit in recent months. Most recently, the chief executive of global parts supplier Unipart John Neill told audiences at the World Economic Forum that a no-deal Brexit could result in a “cascade of failure” in the supply chain, Forbes reports.

Financial analysts have been worried about Britain leaving the European Union for years, well before there was ever serious talk about such a move being made.

Economist Patrick Minford who doubles as a professor of economics at Cardiff Business School has been particularly outspoken about the impacts of Brexit.

Speaking in 2012, Minford said that the UK’s automotive manufacturing industry would be destroyed. Minford has continued to state this in the years’ since and in 2016, reiterated what he believes the impacts of Brexit will be.

“If we left the EU, it seems likely that we would mostly eliminate manufacturing, leaving mainly industries such as design, marketing and hi-tech,” he stated.

Not only could Brexit ruin manufacturing in the UK, it is also going to result in cheaper imports of vehicles built overseas. Minford says that this could raise living standards for those in the UK.

However, if Britons were to buy cheaper vehicles in greater numbers, traffic congestion would naturally increase. A recent study from INRIX and the Center of Economics and Business Research determined that traffic congestion in the UK will soon cost the economy £21.4 billion ($28.14 billion) a year.

“We now know that congestion will continue to have serious consequences for national and city economies, businesses and citizens in the years to come. If we think this problem is bad now, we are in for a terrible shock come 2030,” INRIX European director Matt Simmons said.