Britain is leaving the European Union on March 29 and with just a few weeks left before the due date, Prime Minister Theresa May has yet to secure a deal needed to gain parliamentary support. In line with this, the Northern Island firms urged the PM to get a deal because they cannot leave the EU without it.
BBC News reported that over 50 NI businesses have written an open letter to Theresa May and they warned her about the outcomes for a "no deal" Brexit. They told her that without the deal, they will face substantial damage in their trade.
CBI, the employers association, has organized the open letter so that the Prime Minister will "hear" their concerns and everything else they had to say regarding the looming Brexit.
"The Northern Ireland business community wish to express its deep concern that local firms are hugely exposed to the economic fallout from leaving the EU with no-deal," the association wrote in the open letter. "The private sector across Northern Ireland is currently responsible for 560,000 jobs and has ambitions to create many more. However, a no-deal Brexit will result in significant damage to our export markets, supply chains, consumer spending power, and the region's competitiveness."
They added that although Brexit is still a few weeks away, they can already feel the negative effects concerning the private sector's capability to invest.
"Local businesses believe that the failure to approve a deal with Europe on the UK's withdrawal from the EU will have significant repercussions for the local economy," they further wrote. "Such a scenario will both hinder indigenous and foreign direct investment, it would result in significant job losses and will stifle opportunities for the next generation across Northern Ireland."
Some of the companies who signed the letter include major international and local firms such as Coca-Cola, the Viridian Group, Norbrook Laboratories, Danske Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland's Ulster Bank, Bombardier and the Queen's University Belfast. For months, these Northern Irish business groups have been urging the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to give in and lower their opposition stance and choose unity for the benefit of everyone.
Meanwhile, the Brexit talks between EU and Britain remained uncertain as the standoff is not getting closer to being resolved. Brandon Lewis, the head of Theresa May's Conservatives, said that the British government will not agree with a deal that
will "compromise the unity of the United Kingdom" after the EU suggested that it will regard Northern Ireland differently from the U.K.
