Norway and Brexit

Today I delivered a Key Note about Brexit to Norwegian business at the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO).

NHO is Norway’s largest organisation for business.

It is time for Norway business to wake up and start preparing. With 43 days to Brexit and UK being the second largest trading partner (20% of exports) after EU, the Norwegian business community need to start preparing for life witout a FTA, with potential WTO tariffs and with trading routes through EU across the English Channel to UK. Norwegian traders needs to start the planning and preparations.

As being a non-EU country maybe Norway has had the feeling not having to change so much in trade relations with UK, but this fundamentally wrong.

Start preparing. There can be costs from 3-25% extra in 43 days.

On the other hand, of preparations are done correctly – it could become a competition advantage towards mainland EU competitors, especially since Norway also have a seaborder and own seafreight connections with UK.

Norway Govenment Lead Brexit negotiator, Atle Leilvoll was the other key note speaker at this full house event in Oslo.

One thing is clear, the Norway business community is not ready for Brexit yet.

With the Norway fish industry at the forefront of exports this is serious.