BCC urges U.K. government to postpone Brexit if trade deal not finalized in time

LONDON, U.K. - The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has said unless a clear trade deal can be reached with the European Union by the end of the two-year negotiations, Brexit should be postponed.

The business organization - which was in favour of the U.K. remaining in the bloc - said completing a trade deal within the two years allowed by Article 50 would be the "ideal outcome.”

However, the BCC, in a report based on feedback from more than 400 businesses, added, "Should this prove impossible, we should seek an extension to the negotiating period to enable completion of both agreements concurrently."

The organization also asked the government to provide clarity for businesses on the “residence rights of existing EU workers” and companies’ abilities to hire from European countries while negotiations were ongoing.

BCC director general Adam Marshall said, "Business communities across the U.K. want practical considerations, not ideology or politics, at the heart of the government's approach to Brexit negotiations."

"What's debated in Westminster often isn't what matters for most businesses. Most firms care little about the exact process for triggering Article 50, but they care a lot about an unexpected VAT hit to their cash flow, sudden changes to regulation, the inability to recruit the right people for the job, or if their products are stopped by customs authorities at the border."

In a bid to deal with the possibility of brain drain and to prevent businesses from being bogged down by significant costs after Brexit, the BCC also urged the government to “aim to minimize tariffs, seek to avoid costly non-tariff barriers, grandfather existing EU free trade agreements with third countries, and expand the trade mission program.”

The comments from business leaders come even as former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major warned that the chances of Britain and the EU not being able to reach an "acceptable" agreement within the two-year time frame were "very high.”

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May had said she will trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty – beginning the official divorce process with the EU – by the end of March.

In a speech to the Chatham House international affairs think-tank, Major remarked, "It is much, so much easier to reach agreement with a friend than with a quarrelsome neighbor." 

"But behind the diplomatic civilities the atmosphere is already sour. A little more charm and a lot less cheap rhetoric would do much to protect the interests of the United Kingdom." 

Major also described U.S. President Donald Trump as "less predictable, less reliable and less attuned to our free-market and socially liberal instincts than any of his predecessors.”

Pro-Brexit MPs were miffed with the former PM's speech, which comes as the House of Lords may seek to make amendments to May's Brexit bill.

Iain Duncan Smith told the Telegraph, "It's a rather bitter, angry speech that doesn't tell you much about the referendum or the prime minister. It mostly tells you about Sir John. It's the bitter speech of an angry man. It has nothing to do with where we're going. It's a re-fighting of the referendum."