Brexit: UK imports and exports evaluated by expert

When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Hopes of a close relationship between the EU and UK over financial services look to be diminishing as a top City of London Corporation official warned “trust is too low.” Nick Collier, managing director of the City of London Corporation in Brussels, said this week that it could take 10 years to repair relations after France demanded a “fish for finance” deal in the Brexit dispute. French ministers have suggested that they will block any attempt for equivalence to happen if the country’s fishermen do not get increased access to British fishing waters.

This comes as Reuters reports that investment banks are shifting jobs out of London to financial centres across the EU.

But while some in the UK voice concern, Professor Iain Begg of the London School of Economics told Express.co.uk that the City of London still has the upper hand in some regards.

He said: “If you are a big multinational based in a European country and you are trying to get financing, London is the place to go because it offers the services you don’t get elsewhere.

“If that becomes a little bit harder then either your cost of getting the capital goes up a bit or you start to look elsewhere, and that may be a stimulus for European financial centres.

“But it’s a bit like a football league – London is in the global Premier League and the European financial centres are in the Championship.”

Professor Begg added that while some European cities have emerged as “winners”, there isn’t enough evidence yet to suggest London is a “loser”.

He added: “It is certainly the case that jobs are to not just Amsterdam but also Paris and Frankfurt and Dublin has been a major winner too.

“That’s financial activity that needs to be inside the eurozone being sucked away from London, at the same time the City is reinventing itself and looking at where it has markets globally.

“As yet, I don’t think there is any clear indication that the City is a loser from Brexit, but it may be that some European centres are marginal winners. If the trickle turns into a flow then we can say this is something damaging for the British economy.”

As the EU and UK continue to standoff over financial services, Consulting firm PwC predicted last month that Brussels will compromise.

John Garvey, global head of financial services at the consulting firm, said that although any agreement is unlikely to happen in the short term, there will come a point when the EU realises a deal is in its own interests.

He said: “There’s going to be a strange relationship developing over time where the Europeans realise they need London.

DON’T MISS
Michel Barnier disaster as his EU links a ‘turn off’ for French voters [INSIGHT]
Eurostar row: UK ‘will consider’ buying back stake in company [ANALYSIS]
EU crisis: Bloc could face ‘permanent reduction’ in tourism [INSIGHT]

“So, I think there will be some kind of deal because the continent will need access to the London market.”

Mr Garvey said that while the EU is looking to create a larger financial market within the eurozone, it cannot decide where its financial capital should be.

He added: “None of those [EU] markets can decide what their financial centre would be and none of their governments are really comfortable shouldering the risk, particularly Germany.”

Source: Read Full Article