The prospect of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union has affected the confidence of economic operators in China, Latin America and the Caribbean about the utility of investing in Europe, explained a global chambers of commerce platform in a 2016 poll on the health of the world economy, published on Thursday 13 October.
Many chambers of commerce (including those in Latin America, Turkey, the United States, Asia-Pacific and the Africa) believe that the Brexit referendum in June, won by supporters of leaving the EU, creates uncertainty about the future of the European project and even does it harm. Chambers of commerce in China, Iran and the Gulf States say that the referendum will not affect the European project, whereas chambers of commerce in India and Russia say it is too soon to make predictions.
Christoph Leitl, who chairs the Austrian chamber of commerce, lists the other concerns expressed by the platform – political and social instability, access to finance and insufficient stability in the financial system. He called for the signing of the EU-Canada trade deal, CETA, arguing that standards in Canada are sometimes higher than in Austria, a country where ratification of CETA cannot be taken for granted (see other article).
Despite recent uncertainty, the global platform of chambers of commerce remains fairly optimistic about growth, which it forecasts for 2017 at 3 to 4% of European GDP. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)