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Sections of the UK automotive trade face extinction until the UK stays within the EU customs union, the president of the CBI has stated.
Paul Dreschler additionally stated there was "zero evidence" that commerce offers outdoors the EU will present any financial profit to Britain.
But the federal government stated it was "focused on delivering a Brexit that works for the whole of the UK".
Brexit campaigners stated the CBI was "the voice of... vested interests".
Car woes
"If we do not have a customs union, there are sectors of manufacturing society in the UK which risk becoming extinct," Mr Dreschler stated.
"Be in no doubt, that is the reality."
He informed BBC Radio four's Today programme the automotive trade particularly would undergo until we get "real frictionless trade".
Mr Dreschler, who is because of step down from his position subsequent week, stated larger prices brought on by the imposition of commerce tariffs and delays on the border is not going to solely have an effect on particular person firms, however your entire provide chain.
He also stated that the UK could be a lot better utilizing the dimensions of the EU to barter commerce agreements than going it alone.
"There's zero evidence that independent trade deals will provide any economic benefit to the UK that's material. It's a myth," he stated.
'Lack of readability'
Delays to enterprise funding have been additionally affecting the UK economic system, he stated.
"We already know tens of millions, in fact hundreds of millions have been invested by UK pharmaceutical and finance companies to create continuity post a worse-case Brexit scenario. Tens of millions. What could we have done with that money?" Mr Dreschler stated.
The authorities has not given enterprise the mandatory readability to make funding selections, he stated.
"We have a negotiation throughout the UK authorities that is gone on for almost three years.
"We still haven't got clarity about the future direction, about where we're heading, what will the future relationship with Europe be, at a level of detail that matters for investment."
However, a spokesperson for the Department for Exiting the EU (Dexeu) stated the federal government was "focused on delivering a Brexit that works for the whole of the UKincluding businesses across the economy."
"We have laid out our strategy to our withdrawal and future relationship with the EU in 14 detailed papers we revealed final summer time, quite a few speeches given by the prime minister and cupboard ministers, and the technical notes and slides we revealed in current weeks.
"We'll soon publish a White Paper with detailed explanations of our ambition for a future relationship with the EUbuilding on the positions set out by the prime minister," the spokesperson added.
'Brexit features'
Brexit campaigner Professor Patrick Minford of the Economists for Free Trade group stated the CBI was "the voice of the large industrial vested interests that oppose the competition and productivity growth that free trade under Brexit will bring, as well as the fall in consumer prices that goes with it."
"It additionally opposes lighter regulation that allows small companies to compete with the massive CBI incumbents. Also it loves low-cost unskilled EU labour as an alternative of getting to make use of and practice UK staff.
"The CBI has a lengthy historical past of opposing good economics: from monetarism, by means of union reform, to leaving the ERM. It even wished us to hitch the euro.
"The outgoing president Dreschler is as wrong as so many of his predecessors."
Professor Minford added: "Precisely what Brexit will do is take away the EU protectionism and extreme regulation that's holding again our economic system, not simply in commerce however in daring innovation usually, in bio-technology, in AI, in power, in finance and far else.
"The gains from our potential free trade agreements are well documented. Our calculations put them at 4% of GDP," he stated.