Group Rhodes CEO Mark Ridgway comments on the CBI report stating the importance of the UK remaining in a European Union that accepts key reforms.
“There is no doubt that the UK should be engaged within Europe and that we should be working towards eliminating non-tariff barriers (present in all industry sectors and in such forms as national ‘licences to practice).
“We sometimes forget however that the benefits that accrue from EU membership are not all related to how we view our own relationship with Europe, but rather how others view the same equation. Foreign owned businesses looking to locate in the UK and strengthen our supply chain, often place as much importance on links with the EU as they do the economic benefits of locating and creating employment within our shores.
“That said, the EU should continue to work towards trade deals to increase access to markets, such as that being negotiated with the US (the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement; TAFTA), There also needs to be a clear recognition that EU Institutions need to be prioritising Growth.
“At the MTA, where we have pan-European issues such as the EcoDesign Directive, we already work on a pan-european basis, but as a general observation it is important that the UK Government should not gold plate regulations coming from Brussels. ‘The creeping extension of EU authority’ to which the CBI report refers, is often amplified by an over literal translation of certain directives, many examples of which can be found within the manufacturing sector.”
