This week saw eight national business federations from around the world release a joint statement against a no deal Brexit. We at the CBI have been hearing the concerns of private international investors for many months regarding this scenario, and the fact that their representative bodies have now gone public illustrates the depths of their worry.
While this joint statement was exclusively for third country business organisations, the CBI maintains excellent relations with our international equivalents. This allows us to promote our own policy priorities around the world. These include important global issues such as the future of the WTO and digital taxation, alongside our efforts to strengthen bilateral economic links. We also work together multilaterally, including through the B20 and B7, to shape the agenda of the world’s leaders on economic issues by drawing on the expertise of business.
And our long-lasting and mutually beneficial relations with our international partners, including the US and Canadian Chambers, provides us with a way to engage and influence in these key markets. This makes our impact far stronger since we can draw on the insights, access and advice of our sister federations.
The CBI will continue to use our unique position as the UK’s only representative business organisation in the B20, B7, Business at the OECD and BusinessEurope to internationalise our own policy vision. In this way, we’ll ensure that the voice of our members is shaping the direction of international policy initiatives and is front and centre in bilateral economic discussions for key global growth markets.