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The chairman of the British Retail Consortium has written to the government stressing the organisations concerns over post-Brexit import tariffs and price rises.
Richard Baker, chairman of the BRC, has written to International Trade Secretary Liam Fox warning of failure to reach agreeable trade deals would mean rising costs for retailers and consumers.
In a letter seen by The Telegraph, Baker writes: “The retail industry is the UK’s biggest importer, and has huge experience of importing from every corner of the world. We will be engaged in a constructive dialogue with Government that will bring our experience to bear on the Brexit talks to the benefit of everyone in the UK.”
The BRC says that if the UK relied on World Trade Organisation rules, the average duty on meat imports could rise to as high as 27%, while clothing and footwear could see tariffs of up to 16% and clothing from Bangladesh rise by 12%.
“We will be supporting the Government through this complex and difficult process, helping them analyse how increased cost pressures on retailers could mean higher shop prices and identifying any opportunities for new trade deals that could benefit consumers,” Baker added.
The BRC will launch a “Fair Brexit for Consumers” campaign later this week.
Morning update
It’s a quiet Monday morning on the markets, with no grocery trading updates of note.
The big news later today is the scheduled completion of the £79bn mega-merger between AB InBev (ABI) and London-listed SABMiller (SAB) – one of the biggest corporate deals in history. SABMiller delisted from the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday last week.
The FTSE 100 is currently flat 7,040.3pts after a small spike in early trading. More notably, sterling is back under $1.24 this morning, dropping 0.3% to $1.2392 on top of the 4.2% collapse in the value of the pound last week after PM Theresa May laid out a timetable for Brexit.
The supermarkets are trending downwards this morning, with Sainsbury’s (SBRY) down 0.8% to 230.2p and Tesco (TSCO) down 0.7% to 199.8p.
Early risers include Hotel Chocolat (HOTC), up 1.8% to 249.5p and FeverTree (FEVR), up 1.4% to 977.1p.
Fallers include Premier Foods (PFD), down 2.6% to 53.6p, McColl’s Retail Group (MCLS), down 2.4% to 182.6p and Ocado (OCDO), down 1.4% to 254.9p.
This week in the City
There’s a fairly steady flow of news this week, starting in earnest with the monthly BRC-KPMG retail sales figures for September out first thing tomorrow.
Thursday is the week’s busiest day, with a third quarter trading update from Unilever (ULVR), full-year results from WH Smith (SMWH) and interim results from Booker (BOK).
On Wednesday brewer and pub company Marston’s has a year-end interim management statement, while the annual shareholders meeting for Procter & Gamble (PG) is set for tomorrow morning.
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