British Motorcycle Industry Association Reacts to Brexit

Dennis Chung
by Dennis Chung

On June 23, the United Kingdom held a historic referendum that saw a slim majority vote in favor of leaving the European Union. The “Brexit” side won by a 51.9% to 48.1% margin, setting off a chain of political and economical events including the resignation of British Prime Minister David Cameron and a dramatic plunge in the value of the Pound.

While it remains to be seen how the U.K. proceeds from here, Britain’s Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) has released a statement in reaction to the successful “Leave” vote. The MCIA represents the entire industry, including manufacturers, importers, accessory and parts suppliers and insurance providers, all of whom will be impacted the referendum.

Brexit is, for the UK, the most significant event in its recent history. In a world where political, social and business alliances are increasingly via ‘blocs’, the UK has presented itself with new opportunities.

Whether these opportunities are converted into strong international advantage is very much down to how both business and government perform in the coming years.

The MCIA has a key role in support of its members to grasp the opportunities and will work closely with whatever government emerges.

A key benefit for our sector is that we will have much more opportunity to directly influence how the Government legislates and behaves in relation to the UK motorcycle industry and motorcycling in general.

MCIA will carefully consider economic modelling and ramifications for the medium term to support those of its members who now have a new range of opportunities.

For the near term, we continue to be in the EU and current type approval and single market regulation (such as licensing etc) will still affect us. Our trading environment will not significantly change in the immediate future.

Question marks over what will replace the EU in terms of foreign business and trade relations will take an unknown period to conclude. In the long term, frameworks will be created and a more stable environment will emerge.

MCIA will work closely with the government departments responsible to ensure its members are continually appraised of developing opportunities.

In the immediate short term it is to be hoped that a weakened pound and unpredictable interest rates do not overly damage the sector’s positive recovery over recent years.

MCIA will evolve to help its members meet these new challenges, maintain its relations with European bodies and create new ones with other trading blocs. This will ensure that going forward our sector has the knowledge and expertise to ensure members can maximise the unexpected new range of opportunities now presented to the industry.

Dennis Chung
Dennis Chung

Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.

More by Dennis Chung

Comments
Join the conversation
Next