For those who may not be aware, The United Kingdom held a referendum vote on its relationship to the EU back in 2016. With virtual guarantees that The United Kingdom would remain in the EU – it came as a shock that by a slim margin more of the public had voted ‘leave’. The impact of the surprise vote caused lots of uncertainty with citizens of The United Kingdom and has caused industries to become very challenged.
How Has Brexit Impacted on the Electronics Industry So Far?
The impact of the referendum vote caused the pound to drop dramatically. A weak pound is bad for us is that it makes everything we import from overseas more expensive. Therefore, importing electronic components into the UK is more costly. As you can imagine, this slowed down the electronic components shift. This affected distributors, suppliers and well as manufacturers simply because less people were purchasing the components.
Many UK based publishers have been widely affected due to global organisations not promoting their electronics in certain UK based magazines / websites due to the uncertainty.
How Will Brexit Impact on the Electronics Industry in the Future?
It’s difficult to predict the future on this matter as there is so much uncertainty. However, I believe that it will not only be more expensive to import electronics into and from the UK, but it will also be more time consuming. For example, the electronics industry across Europe were able to shift products throughout the EU borders without the need for custom checks. This was due to the ‘Freedom of Movement Act’ in 1993. However, if the UK officially leaves the EU, which is likely – there will be increased border checks which will impact both cost as well as time frames.
Not only this, many large companies have expressed concern about pursuing their operations in the UK. If these large companies were to transport their business / workplace elsewhere, this could cause dramatic loss in jobs as well as effecting our economy.
Summary
Overall, I believe that if The United Kingdom officially leave the EU, there will be a dramatic loss of jobs due to large companies moving their premises elsewhere. There may also be a decrease in the shifting of electronic components globally. This is due to UK residents purchasing lower quantities because of increased shipping cost / timeframes which can affect manufacturing jobs. All in all, I believe that Brexit will have a negative impact on the electronics industry not only UK based, but globally.
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