MOTORING NEWS - Britain needs to strike post-Brexit trade deals with countries such as Turkey and South Africa as well as the European Union, Ford said on Wednesday, underlining the scale of the challenge facing Prime Minister Theresa May to meet business demands.
Ford, Britain’s biggest automotive engine-maker, operates two manufacturing sites in the country and like other companies has warned that any trade restrictions after it leaves the EU could add to costs and endanger British production.
The US carmaker denies union claims it is planning to ax 1,100 jobs at its engine plant in Wales by the end of the decade after scaling back an investment there.
Ford sends UK-built engines to Turkey, where it assembles its range of Transit vans and then exports many completed vehicles to Britain, benefiting from the barrier-free trade guaranteed by the EU’s customs deal with Turkey.
All of Ford’s Ranger pick-up trucks sold in Britain, meanwhile, are made in South Africa, reflecting the interconnected supply and sales chain made easy by EU trade deals with other countries, which Britain will now need to renegotiate as it leaves the bloc.
