Brussels — Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council, has issued a statement strongly in favour of trying to retain as much integration between the UK and the rest of the European Union as possible in the wake of last month's UK referendum.
Brexit: Cefic wants high level of UK and EU trade integration
“The UK is an important trading partner for EU chemical companies, contributing on average 9% or EUR46.3 bn ($51 bn) of total EU28 chemicals sales of EUR531 bn. EU chemicals trade surplus with the UK was EUR2 bn on average from 2007 to 2014. Petrochemicals and other chemicals represent together 41% of total UK chemicals sales. EU chemicals exports to the UK are around EUR22.3 bn, and with 28%, petrochemicals are the largest EU exporting sector to UK. EU chemicals imports on the other hand from the UK reached EUR20.3 bn.
“Given this importance for Europe we need to work closely to ensure that existing trade and investment is not weakened and future opportunities are seized. As the implications of the referendum unfold more concretely, we look to the respective governments, Parliaments of the UK and European Union Member States to work hard with the European Commission on securing the right framework for establishing new arrangements so our economies can continue to grow. We look forward to playing our part towards carving out a strong and reformed Europe.”
Isopa, the European Isocyanate producers association is a member of Cefic and Alipa the European Aliphatic Isocyanate Producer's Association, is a sector group of the association.
Overall Cefic represents 29,000 large, medium and small chemical companies in Europe, which directly provide 1.2 million jobs and account for 17% of world chemical production.
