Britain must stay in the EU, says Nissan boss … Carmaker says threat of European Union import tariffs could be an "obstacle" for Nissan if Britain exits the single market. Nissan employs 6,400 people at the Sunderland car plant … One of the UK's most important foreign investors, the Japanese car-giant, Nissan, has said that Britain's membership of the European Union is "very important" and that it wants to see the UK remain part of the single market. Toshiyuki Shiga, Nissan's chief operating officer and the second most powerful man in the business below the chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, said that the threat of import tariffs between the UK and the rest of the European Union could be an "obstacle" to the car-maker. – UK Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: Leaving the highly regulated, over-taxed, uncompetitive, currency-debasing, empire-in-the-making that is the EU will somehow hurt Britain.
Free-Market Analysis: Here’s a wrinkle! As you can see from the above Telegraph excerpt, British banking elites have obviously been burning up the phone wires to Tokyo and probably other industrial capitals, as well. The idea is to twist arms of major corporations until they explain to the jobless British public that their continued presence in the EU is necessary if they want to work at all.
Britain, like the rest of Europe, is suffering from a terrible economy. The combination of reckless money-printing and the determination of banking elites not to let a single, bloated financial firm go out of business has virtually paralyzed the British economy, as it has paralyzed much of Europe.
There are no jobs because no one wishes to invest. There are no jobs because it is not clear what companies are solvent. Moreover, there are no jobs because the European building binge that lasted until about 2008 was a titanic one, leaving much of Europe saddled with the tremendous sovereign debt and wasteful public infrastructure.
Not a bicycle path was too long, not a park was too green, not a government building was too large, not a benefit unnecessary … and when it came to an end, none of it made sense. The figures didn’t add up and they don’t add up today.
Enter the “finger pointing.” Today, in the British press, it is fashionable to attribute the European Union to the Germans; but the Germans were defeated in two world wars and the idea that a pan-European union could be built without Allied acquiescence is ludicrous. The European Union may have been a German idea, at least partially, but it was created surreptitiously by the Anglosphere. Globalization is the goal. Regional unions are being implemented all over the world. Coincidence?
The power elite that created the EU does not want to “own” this disaster; everyone wants to blame the other guy. Yet, bottom line, the EU is literally being built on European corpses: on the bodies of those who have died in protests, or who have simply killed themselves in desperation.
Unsurprisingly, this does not dissuade the top men of the EU and the City of London. Alarmed no doubt by the growing anti-EU sentiment and the possibility of an actual vote, we see how they’ve begun to threaten Britain with further job losses. Their desperation can surely be measured by the malevolence of this tactic. Here’s more:
Nissan employs 6,400 people at the Sunderland car plant and several hundred more at its research and development centre at Cranfield, Bedfordshire. "The UK is part of the European Union, [that] is very important," he said, speaking at the company's headquarters in Japan. "From the foreign investor point of view I hope that the UK will remain as an EU member."
Although Mr Shiga said that it was too early to know what the change might mean in duties or tax tariffs, there was likely to be an affect. "Of course there is some influence," he said. David Cameron has pledged to hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU by the end of 2017.
Last weekend, the prominent Conservative back bencher, Adam Afriyie MP, said the vote should be brought forward to 2014, before the General Election in May 2015. Although some business leaders, such as Sir Mike Rake, the president of the CBI, have also warned about leaving the EU, others, such as Lord Wolfson, the chief executive of Next, have argued that the EU needs to reform and that UK has nothing to fear from being in the "slow lane".
Nissan is one of the most important foreign investors in the UK, launching its factory in the north east of England in 1986. In 2010, the factory produced 400,000 cars a year, a figure that has now risen to 510,000. Up to 80pc of those vehicles are exported, many to continental Europe.
Last month, Nissan announced the start of production of the new Note car following a £125m investment. The move created 400 more jobs at the Sunderland plant and 1,600 jobs in the supply chain. The new Nissan Qashqai and premium mid-sized car, the Infiniti, will also be built in Sunderland, with Mr Shiga hinting that another vehicle could also soon be produced at the factory.
… "A lot of regulations are under the EU," he argued. "If the UK – after departing from the EU – is making unique regulations, unique standards, this would become an obstacle. … If the EU side [put] import duty from the UK, that would be a big obstacle. [It] depends what happens after leaving
Not only is Shiga basically threatening British laborers, he’s also making things up. Would there be a trade war if Britain leaves the EU? Really? The EU needs Britain as much as Britain needs the EU.
So what does this show us? Only that our suspicions regarding multinationals are confirmed once again. Money Power is a hydra-headed beast and those running these vast, judicially protected enterprises seem to feel allegiance only to their own corporate class … and not to country, race or even religion.
The globalist elite are united in their vision of an ever more internationalist world, and they speak in one voice. In this case, British workers are being instructed in no uncertain terms that a further depression will be instigated if they do not see the proverbial error of their ways.
It is very questionable whether such tactics are going to be effective, but their implementation – as we pointed out – does give us a sense of the concern that is being felt at the highest levels regarding this disastrous “experiment.” It also provides us with a sense that a British departure from the EU is now seen as at least a possibility, and one that needs to be precluded as rapidly as possible.
Given that British revulsion continues to manifest itself, these heavy-handed tactics will not have much of an impact, but what they reveal about larger trends is instructive. Today, we are little more optimistic that British leaving-taking may actually occur. Thanks, Mr. Shiga.
