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Brexit: BDI-Task Force Positions
Task Force Members
Together with its member organisations, companies and umbrella organisations including the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA), the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA), the Association of German Banks (BdB) and the German Insurance Association (GDV), the BDI set up a Brexit Task Force in early summer 2017. The Task Force meets once a month to discuss Brexit-related topics and events. Its work is supported by ten subject-specific project groups and involves a total of over 200 members.
Work and objective of the Task Force
The project teams of the BDI-Task Force are developing positions on the following areas:
- Trade in Goods
- Transportation and Logistics
- Data and ICT
- Taxation
- Legal consequences of the transition to a third country
- Energy and Climate Policy
- Market Access
- Workforce Mobility (headed by the BDA)
- Financial Services
- Overall Process (Northern Ireland, Research and Development, Security and Defence)
In order to prepare companies for the UK’s exit of the European Union, BDI, BDA and vbw worked together to provide a guide with 111 practical questions and recommendations for companies.
“We would like to see more clarity regarding the UK’s ideas for the next years. We need to know which options are viable for London,” said BDI Director General Joachim Lang about the negotiations on future relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The work of the BDI Task Force will progress in line with the official negotiations.
As long as a hard Brexit – in other words, an unregulated exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union – cannot be ruled out, the primary objective of the Task Force is to prepare German business for this scenario. If the exit modalities are clarified in the foreseeable future and negotiations progress to transition regulations, the Task Force will develop its proposals accordingly.
The BDI is also a member of a similar task force at BusinessEurope, the umbrella organisation for European business and is thus actively participating in consolidating the common position of the European business associations.
