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Chief Executive Andy Palmer, who is accompanying Prime Minister
Theresa May as part of a trade mission to Japan, said that
whilst the firm could absorb any tariffs due to the high price
of its cars and the fall in the pound, new bureaucratic delays
caused by customs checks would be a disaster.
"If I was to list my priorities from top to bottom I start with
non-tariff barriers being the thing that I worry about the
most," Palmer told reporters on the sidelines of a Japan-UK
business forum in Tokyo.
"What I can't cope with is my cars being stuck at a French port
for six months," he said.
Palmer said he was "cautious rather than nervous" over the
current lack of clarity over post-Brexit trading terms, as
Britain and the EU hammer out complicated divorce terms and
backed May's stance of copying EU trade deals as a starting
point.
"It makes sense because you're starting from something you know.
You've suddenly removed one of those big uncertainties," he
said.
Since the Brexit referendum vote in June last year, Japan's
Nissan and Toyota have announced major investments in their
British plants, although both were given reassurances that post-Brexit
competitiveness would be maintained, according to sources
familiar with the matter.
Palmer said whilst the investments were positive, there were
still several firms which had yet to commit to their British
sites in the years ahead.
"It's the companies that are yet to make a decision that you
need to worry about," he said. "I don't want to speculate who
they might be, but there are some."
Peugeot-maker PSA, Volkswagen-owned Bentley and Ford are among
the major carmakers which are due to make investment decisions
about their British plants over the next two years.
(Reporting by William James in Tokyo; Writing by Costas Pitas in
London; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
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