No-deal Brexit puts 127,000 textile jobs at risk, Euratex warns

The UK leaving the EU without a deal could result in the loss of 127,000 jobs in the textile and clothing (T&C) industry, new research suggests.

According to a new study, commissioned by the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (Euratex) with the University of Leuven in Belgium, a no-deal Brexit could lead to job losses of over 100,000 from the EU-27 and over 27,000 from the UK.

Euratex said output losses for the UK would be 41.8 percent of its value added in T&C production, while the EU-27 as a whole would lose about 9.7 percent.

The largest share of the EU-27 job losses per country in decreasing order would be Italy, Romania, Portugal, Germany, France, Spain and Poland. Under a hard Brexit, about 27,000, 12,000 and 11,000 jobs will be lost in Italy, Romania and Portugal, respectively. That corresponds to about 27 percent, 12 percent and 10 percent of the EU-27 total working population in the sector.

However, as a proportion of the sector employment and value added in the country, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Denmark and Czechia would be the hardest hit countries within the EU-27, both in terms of value added and in job losses.

For Ireland and Belgium, a hard Brexit would lead to respectively -23 percent and -14 percent of job losses in the sector and an output loss of -40 percent and -25 percent of their sector value added.

Negotiations are still ongoing between the UK and EU but a no-deal could still occur if there is no timely ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement, or if the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified but no agreement on the EU-UK future relationship is struck before the end of the transition period on 31 December.

Euratex said a soft Brexit scenario would minimize the damage, but would still be significant. In this scenario, it’s expected there would be 4,759 job losses in the UK with an output loss of 7.3 percent of its value added, and 17,786 job losses in the EU-27 with an output loss of 1.7 percent of its value added.

Dirk Vantyghem, director general of Euratex, said the figures “reflect companies’ legitimate concern with a no-deal Brexit”.

“EU-UK trade relations are an essential component of their competitive business model, on both sides. For the T&C industry, we have offered a win-win solution (integrating the UK in the PEM Convention), which would limit disruptions in the T&C value chain to a minimum,” Vantyghem said.

Euratex president Alberto Paccanelli added: “I call on political leaders on both sides to use their common sense, and think about the jobs which are at stake. Our companies try to maintain employment levels, despite the impact of Covid19; we cannot add more burden to them.”

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