EMEA News
Brexit: EU 'Leavers' Yet to Address Concerns of UK Chamber of Shipping
The UK Chamber of Shipping says supporters of a possible exit by Britain from the European Union (EU), the so-called "Brexit", have yet to adequately address their concerns.
"The Leave campaigns have not yet presented enough hard, factual analysis. Their job is to set out, in clear terms, what the UK will look like outside the European Union, particularly how it will trade with its closest neighbours, and they have not yet done nearly enough," said Guy Platten, CEO of the UK Chamber.
"The British people are being asked to take a leap in the dark in voting to leave. So for the Leave campaigns to succeed they need to talk about jobs, investment and global influence, not just sovereignty and patriotism. The 'it'll be alright' mentality is not enough. They must set out a clear, detailed alternative."
That said, Platten, was also critical of the EU, and noted a lack of tangible reform in the recent proposal on the reformed membership of the UK to the EU.
According to Platten, the EU uses boiler plate phrase like "The European Union will pursue an active and ambitious trade policy", "take concrete steps towards better regulation," and "fully strengthen the internal market," which "appear to be simply generic, and are things that the EU should be doing anyway."
"Unsurprisingly perhaps, there is nothing in the reform package that addresses long standing concerns from the UK Chamber of Shipping that the EU has a tendency to gold-plate regulations agreed at a global level through the International Maritime Organisation," he added.
In October of 2014 Ship & Bunker reported that Platten called the implementation of European sulfur regulations "cack-handed."
