chrisharries

With the news dominated by the events in Brussels and David Cameron’s veto on the European Union’s plans to regulate spending with tough sanctions for countries who borrow too much, will British businesses find trading more difficult in Europe? The initial reaction from commentators and Politician’s across Europe was certainly not very warm to the Stance the David Cameron had taken. Many observers felt that the UK is now an outsider in Europe and this could start to affect trade. But in reality, if you are a supplier to customers in Germany, France, Italy or any other European country, will you see orders falling away?

My own gut feeling is that British businesses probably won’t experience a dip in demand from their European customers as a direct result of last Friday’s veto on proposed treaty change. As an example, first tier automotive suppliers based in the UK supplying products into the likes of BMW, VW and Mercedes will have gone through lengthy supplier development processes to become approved and detailed contracts of supply will be in place. With OEM’s like BMW or VW develop suppliers, they invest significant cost, time and effort into the process and they don’t want to see those agreements fail.

One of the other factors to consider is Britain’s presence within the high tech industry sectors. Our specialist manufacturing firms will continue supply customers in Europe as those customers have few alternatives to go elsewhere.

I think the impact of the veto on proposed treaty change could be more subtle and may take longer to take effect. One thing I have seen from speaking a number of purchasing professionals is that all businesses are under pressure to reduce costs and maintain a strong, cost effective product.