Attached.

For Many British Businesses, Brexit Has
Already Happened
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For more than three decades, London has attracted global banks, trading operations,
hedge funds, asset managers and sovereign wealth funds, becoming a global financial
center second to none. Brexit has jeopardized that status.CreditCreditAndrew Testa for
The New York Times
By Peter S. Goodman


April 1, 2019
LONDON — In the political realm, no one knows how Brexit’s long-running theater of
the absurd will end. But for much of the business world, Britain’s departure from the
European Union has effectively happened.
Nearly three years of uncertainty since the June 2016 referendum has forced companies
to plan for the worst — the prospect that Britain could crash out of the bloc without a
deal governing future relations. The twisting road to Brexit has already slowed economic
growth, discouraged investment and damaged the reputation of the nation as a haven
for commerce.

Global banks and other financial services companies are steadily shifting thousands of
jobs and more than $1 trillion in assets to European cities to ensure that they are able to
serve customers across the English Channel regardless of the rules that national
regulators impose after Brexit.
Japanese automakers have scrapped plans to expand in Britain, in part because Brexit
undermines the country’s virtues as a hub for European trade.
Whatever comes next — a deal with Europe, an unruly exit or another vote that could
cancel the proceedings, making Brexit the mother of all mulligans — the jobs and the
money are unlikely to return. The deadlock only deepened on Monday, as Britain’s
Parliament failed to reach consensus on the latest Brexit proposals.
“Multinational companies came here with a clear understanding that Britain would offer
a stable place to do business in exchange for access to the European Union,” said Peter
Dixon, a global financial economist at Commerzbank AG in London. “The Brits have
reneged on that contract. It’s destroyed, if you like, the sense that Britain is such a great
place to do business. It’s a credibility hit. It’s a deep wound.”
Since the 1980s, Japanese automakers have invested in factories in Britain to exploit the
country’s duty-free access to Europe. Before the 2016 vote, Nissan warned that leaving
the European Union could force the company to reassess its plans for its plant in
Sunderland, in the north of England.
Months after the vote, Prime Minister Theresa May offered Nissan a mysterious cocktail
of promises that won Nissan’s confidence. But in February, the company said it would
not build a new sport utility vehicle in Sunderland. At about the same time, Honda
said it was closing a factory in southwest England, in the town of Swindon, eliminating
3,500 jobs.
Honda’s decision was motivated partly by a trade agreement that Japan struck last year
with the European Union. The deal eliminates the need for a factory in Britain, because
Honda can now ship cars made in Japan directly into Europe without incurring duties.

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The New Covent Garden Market in London. If Britain leaves the European market, it
will lose not only free access to Europe but also the benefits of the bloc’s trade deals with
other countries.CreditAndrew Urwin for The New York Times...