Till the Brexit vote in 2016, few folks within the UK, even inside the automotive sector, knew a lot and even thought of commerce offers and tariffs. The Brexit negotiations modified that and the precise and potential prices of leaving a big buying and selling bloc have been entrance and centre of the business’s issues. The UK-EU Commerce and Co-operation Settlement (TCA) is undoubtedly imperfect, however it gave UK automotive manufacturing a greater deal than many different sectors, and for the UK car producers, issues have  largely continued as they did underneath EU membership.

The TCA permits UK car producers to incorporate EU content material as if it have been sourced from UK suppliers for the principles of origin provisions of the TCA; which means that supplied UK-made autos have 55% mixed UK and EU content material they are often exported to the EU tariff-free.  All UK made autos meet that stipulation. Within the reverse path nearly all EU-made automobiles additionally qualify, however remoted exceptions exist. The Ford Fiesta ST, made in Cologne (albeit not for for much longer), is topic to import tariffs when it arrives within the UK, as a result of this variant makes use of an engine and transmission from North America which, together with another non-EU content material, takes this car beneath the 55% mixed UK-EU content material degree.