Brexit: 'Canceling Brexit will cause even more damages'

When the majority of the British public voted for Brexit on June 23, which shocked the whole world, 61.3 percent of the approval votes came from the northeastern city of Sunderland. The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Brexit advocates in Sunderland are regretting their decision just couple days after they got what they wanted.

Behind the regret is a rumor that Japanese automaker Nissan Motor will withdraw from the industrial city because of Brexit. Nissan' manufacturing facility in Sunderland is the biggest in the UK, annually exporting 476,589 units, 55 percent of produced cars to EU member countries. In this facility, on which Nissan invested 3.85 billion pounds, more than 7,000 local people are working currently. If Nissan moves out of the area, all these workers will lose their jobs.

People of Sunderland voted for Brexit, believing that Nissan will not move out regardless of the referendum result. Unfortunately they might be wrong. In case of the UK is not part of the EU anymore, Nissan loses its free access to the EU market, probably leading to either Nissan's withdrawal or a major workforce reduction in the facility.

"Workers who were afraid of layoffs are now more afraid. I cannot believe what I have done in the Brexit referendum," said an employee of the Nissan plant.

More and more Britons, who voted for Brexit, are now regretting their decision. They call this phenomenon "Regrexit," which means "Regret Brexit." This voice is especially strong among young generations, saying, "We have a whole life ahead of us, but the older generations thoughtlessly decided our future."

Protesters are lashing out politicians, who led the Brexit campaigns and changed their attitude after the referendum. Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond criticized the Brexit advocates on Wednesday by saying, "For the Scottish independence referendum, the Scottish National Party wrote a 670 page pledge. The Brexit supporters only focused on political disputes without any post-referendum plans.

Banks and investment firms in London, which used to be the finance hub of the Europe, are also preparing an exodus, as the European Central Bank made a warning that financial institutions in the UK will lose their privilege of selling financial products and services freely to customers in EU member countries. CNN Money reported on Wednesday that seven cities including Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, Dublin, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Edinburgh are now considered as the next EU finance hub.

　

Investment prospects are dark as well. The Institute of Directors surveyed a thousand of its members and found that more than one third of them said that they had to reduce their investment due to Brexit, according to the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. One quarter of the respondents said that they will stop hiring people in the UK, while 22 percent said that they consider moving part of their business out from country. Apparently, the UK will have to pay the price for Brexit for a while.

파리=전승훈특파원 raphy@donga.com