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Airbus in 'great difficulty' if transition agreement fails

The logo of aircraft manufacturer Airbus is pictured outside their wing assembly plant near Broughton in north-east Wales, on December 01, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Airbus will be in “great difficulty” if the plane-maker firm fails to get a transition agreement over the UK’s divorce from the European Union (EU), says an academic in London, after aviation giant threatened that it could leave the United Kingdom after the country exits the bloc.

“Airbus is in a situation where if it does not get a transition agreement, it will be in great difficulty,” Dr. Rodney Shakespeare, a university professor in London, said in an interview with Press TV on Friday.

“Airbus is already in some difficulty losing its trade with Iran as a result of America and it doesn’t want to lose its cooperation and indeed possibly its manufacturing connections with Europe,” he added.

Shakespeare also noted that as the transition agreement is an immediate period of two years, Airbus will have to be moving quickly to address a difficult and uncertain situation.

The firm called on the UK to extend the planned transition period due to run until December 2020, saying it was “too short” for the business to reorganize its supply chain.

Airbus warned that a no-deal Brexit could have “catastrophic consequences” for its production plans and put thousands of British jobs at risk.

Airbus directly employs 14,000 people in Britain and supports more than 100,000 jobs in a wider supply chain in the country.

The British government said it was “listening” to the concerns of Airbus and that the company regularly spoke to ministers.


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