John Lightfoot, MBE, chairman of Solar Solve Ltd was greatly relieved when he watched on TV the UK officially regaining its Independence when it cancelled its membership of the European Union at 23:00 hrs on 31st January 2020. Hopefully it will be the end of an uncertain future for the UK that will bring stability and an opportunity to start building a sure and certain way forward, not just for the UK but for all of the countries it trades with.
There will be a multitude of difficulties associated with the UK leaving the EU, in all sorts of ‘policy areas’, some of which won’t be finalised for years. The ‘key’ ones include: NHS and Healthcare; Law and Order; Industry and Investment; Regulation; Data; Farming and the Environment; Fisheries; Borders; Travel; Expats and Pensioners; and the one that is likely to have the greatest impact on Solar Solve Ltd, which is Trade.
Although the UK is now legally outside of the EU, in reality nothing much will change because Britain will spend the remainder of 2020 in a transition period with the bloc. The plan is that for this year at least, Britain will seek to strike trade agreements with major non-EU countries, whilst maintaining zero trade barriers with the EU for the whole of 2020. An extended objective is to strike free trade deals with more than a dozen countries in the next 3 years in an ambitious UK Independence plan to have 80% of trade covered by such agreements. If the UK government is successful and this objective becomes a reality, John Lightfoot is assuming that it will be very good for his business.
He commented, “I would like think that within the UK, now that the way forward has been set in motion, UK citizens of all previous persuasions will realise and accept that the best way to proceed now, is to adopt a ‘we are at war’ attitude.”
“We need to work together to make our country great again. I appreciate it is a well-worn cliché but it does fit the bill regarding the direction in which everyone needs to proceed, from here.”
Most of the news channels and newspaper pundits did not miss the opportunity to make or refer to the statement ‘We are just leaving the EU, we are not leaving Europe’. The team at Solar Solve are well aware of this and have been for the past 5 years, referring to it many times in blogs and directly to its customers in the 106 countries with whom it trades.
It is in the best interests of both the EU and the UK to broker deals that benefit both sides and we are sure that will happen most of the time. Whilst on the one hand there are senior politicians in the EU being negative and disgruntled about the UK departure, on the other hand there are reports that their trade negotiators are lining up to negotiate trade deals with the UK. Obviously political side-swiping and gamesmanship are never going to change.
The Prime Minister and UK government have to deal with numerous policy areas as mentioned previously and have to keep many people happy. TRADE is just one such policy area and probably the most important one when it comes to completing the UK withdrawal from the EU, so that may be a good point for Solar Solve.
Chairman Lightfoot further commented, “As the Chairman of Solar Solve Ltd I will ensure that our organisation, which has currently traded with over 100 countries, 75% of which are outside of the EU, remains non-political and totally neutral. We will embrace new trading opportunities that an Independent UK and our business can benefit from, as they materialise and tackle them with the utmost enthusiasm, just as we have always done.”
One important objective will be keeping Solar Solve’s many stakeholders and key customers updated on progress, especially any forthcoming legislation that will affect trading terms, conditions and costs, via SSL UKI UPDATE.
As part of the company’s quest to speedily overcome past conflicts, Solar Solve will follow Boris Johnson’s tactic of not using BREXIT, which is now a name from the past and will replace it with UK Independence or UKI, a name for the future.
