U.S. businesses want to see Brexit talks progress slowly
U.S. businesses, Britain’s biggest foreign investors, largely factored in the vote to leave the European Union and now want to see exit talks progress slowly, a top executive at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said.
Investment from across the Atlantic will slow sharply as companies gauge the fallout, Myron Brilliant, head of international affairs at the biggest U.S. business lobby, said in an interview late on Monday in Istanbul.
“You will see minimal investment going to the UK in the short term, (then) a watchful period to see how Britain and Europe negotiate the exit,” he said, adding U.S. investors now want to see Britain at least remain part of the EU trade bloc.
The chamber is widely viewed as part of Republican establishment but has clashed over trade policy with both the Democrats’ Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate for President in November elections.
The pound has plunged to a three-decade low since the Brexit vote, and investors have warned that Britain, until now the world’s fifth-largest economy, faces years of economic uncertainty.
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Brexit also upended Britain’s political order. After party rivals all dropped out, Theresa May, 59, emerged as the next prime minister, to take office on Wednesday. She will now lead divorce proceedings with the EU under Article 50, the formal mechanism for leaving the bloc.
