美国国家公共电台 NPR U.K. Businesses, Officials Push For Clarity, Transitional Deal With European Union

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Britain's government is torn between those who want a clean break from the European Union and those who want to preserve as many ties as possible after Britain leaves the EU in 2019. The paralysis 1 is worrying small-business owners and those in the city of London, the U.K.'s financial center, who say the indecision is damaging the economy and putting any future prosperity at risk. NPR's Joanna Kakissis reports from London.

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JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE 2: Is this a robot?

Rich Walker is the managing director of the London-based company Shadow Robot. He's showing me a black and silver robotic hand wiggling its fingers.

RICH WALKER: These go all over the world into the research community, people doing advanced technology around robotics.

KAKISSIS: Each hand costs about $150,000, made by a team of international roboticists, whom, Walker says, now feel unwanted after Brexit.

WALKER: And we've seen various of our staff want to move from the U.K. back to where they came from or to other countries.

KAKISSIS: On top of that, many of his customers, dependent on research grants, are hesitating about orders.

WALKER: We have customers who are putting together long-term funding applications. And for those customers, the uncertainty 3 - the volatility 4 in the pound, the uncertainty over what's happening economically - is a real problem.

KAKISSIS: That uncertainty has been at full pitch since disastrous 5 elections in June paralyzed the conservative government, leading the infighting over how to exit the EU. U.K. Treasury 6 Secretary Philip Hammond wants a slower exit. He's pushing a transitional deal with the EU that would keep current trade rules in place until new rules can be negotiated.

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PHILIP HAMMOND: When the British people voted last June, they did not vote to become poorer or less secure. They did vote to leave the EU, and we will leave the EU. But it must be done in a way that works for Britain.

KAKISSIS: But what works for Britain when it comes to immigration has been a major issue. Prime Minister Theresa May wants to end the free movement of EU citizens to and from the U.K. after March 2019. Others in her Cabinet want the doors to stay open. Alan Soady, of the Federation 7 for Small Business (ph), wants clarity.

ALAN SOADY: If you run a small business - let's say a tech start-up company - you have five employees; two of those are EU citizens. You want to know whether they're definitely going to be able to stay. If you're recruiting right now and employing an EU national, you don't know whether that person will come under the old arrangement or whatever the new arrangement is. And businesses do you need some certainty around that.

KAKISSIS: The growing course of pro-business voices coupled with the divided British government's hesitant negotiations 8 with the EU have put a spring in the step of remainers. While it may be nearly impossible to reverse course, Former Prime Minister Tony Blair told Sky News he hopes Brexit is dead.

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TONY BLAIR: I think it's absolutely necessary that it doesn't happen because I think every day is bringing us fresh evidence that it's doing us damage economically - certainly, doing us damage politically.

KAKISSIS: There are signs that Brexit has damaged the city, London's historic business district. Speaking on Skype, professor Barbara Casu of London's Cass Business School says banks want to relocate.

BARBARA CASU: They are reaching the point where they can no longer wait to see what the government is deciding to do and that we are hearing news of banks choosing their new headquarters within the European Union. For example, Bank of America Merrill Lynch has announced a move to Dublin, following on from Morgan Stanley choosing Frankfurt.

KAKISSIS: Outside The Lamb, a pub in the city where insurance executives are having lunchtime pints 9, there's talk of moving their headquarters to Luxembourg. But market analyst 10 David Buik, who unlike many here supports Brexit, says London will still be a global financial center.

DAVID BUIK: I've been here in the city of London for 55 years. And I've seen the evolution and the development of the city of London on an international basis. And we've nothing whatever to be frightened of.

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KAKISSIS: Far from the well-heeled voices of the city, the town of Romford sits on the outskirts 12 of London. And it's full of Brexit supporters. Town Councillor Lawrence Webb of the nationalist UKIP party, blames EU bureaucracy for Romford's economic woes 13.

LAWRENCE WEBB: Just take a look around you. There's a boarded-up shop there. There's a boarded-up shop on the corner there.

KAKISSIS: Webb wants the government to move on exiting the EU as soon as possible, hoping that new trade deals with the U.S. can revive Romford and the rest of the country. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, London.

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