09/10/2013
Toshiyuki Shiga is Nissan's chief operating officer and the second most powerful man in the business below the chief executive, Carlos Ghosn. And the Japanese car-giant, Nissan is one of the UK's most important foreign investors.
Mr Shiga,
he says that Britain's membership of the European Union is "very important" and that it wants to see the UK remain part of the single market, otherwise the threat of import tariffs between the UK and the rest of the EU could be an "obstacle" to the car-maker.
Undoubtedly, Mr Shiga is a very clever man, and he probably knows an awful lot about making cars. But, clearly, he doesn't know a lot about the single market â for instance, that a country does not have to belong to the EU in order to participate in it. All they have to do is be like Norway and some other EFTA members, and be EEA members.
As such, if Mr Shiga and his boss Mr Ghosn, want to the UK to be members of the single market, in order to protect the trading position of their business, then it is perfectly valid for them to express their view. But whether we remain in the system of government called the European Union is really none of their business.
One wonders though as to the good faith, or otherwise, of these gentlemen, and whether they are are naïve as they pretend to be. For instance, Mr Shiga opines that Britain remaining in the EU made life simpler as matters such as vehicle safety regulation, emissions regulations and import duties were the same.
"A lot of regulations are under the EU," he is cited as arguing. "If the UK â after departing from the EU â is making unique regulations, unique standards, this would become an obstacle", he then says.
But Mr Shiga could hardly operate effectively at his level if he was unaware of the source of the regulation which covers his product. He must know that the standards-setting body is
UNECE, acting as host to the World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29). And he must know that, in or out of the EU, exactly
as with Norway, we would remain members of UNECE and actually take a greater part in standards-setting.
Mr Shiga and Mr Ghosn thus appear to be playing games, capitalising on the ignorance of the media and people generally in order to make what are essentially political points. They really need to step away from our internal political affairs and mind their own business. They are entitled to concern themselves with making their cars, but we'll decide who governs us, thank you very much.
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