Chapter 436
ArcIT’s main clients are in Europe.
Even now, excluding the California restoration project and the Saemangeum development, 80 percent of our design clients are European companies and governments. We’ve been trading freely without any issues until now, but if a no-deal Brexit occurs, we will take a direct hit.
Because of this issue, the management's opinions were divided between those who thought we should leave London and those who thought we should stay. Opinions were also divided on where to go if we were to leave.
President Peter Katsuyo said,
“The uncertainty in the UK is too great. There's talk that only warehouse owners are making money now. Companies importing products from the EU are stockpiling to the point where their warehouses are bursting, and it's the same for French and German companies that import products from the UK. In this situation, creating future business strategies is itself meaningless.”
Uncertainty is what the economy hates most.
If the worst-case scenario were to happen, we could at least respond accordingly, but since we don't know what will happen, we're stuck, unable to do anything.
In this environment, countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Germany offered various incentives to attract British companies.
The EU is the UK's largest trading partner. Although they decided on Brexit, as evidenced by the Northern Ireland issue alone, there is more than one problem to solve.