In this series of videos from Corrs, Breaking Brexit Down considers how the UK's momentous decision will affect the challenges facing your business.

Over the coming weeks we'll bring you insight from Corrs Partners who'll examine areas ranging from international arbitration through to competition law, privacy, regulation and more.

In our opening video, Corrs Partner and CEO John Denton (AO) takes a closer look at the economic and political landscape and considers the implications for both global trade and Australian business:

  • What are the immediate challenges for the UK, EU and the wider world?
  • Will next year's trade negotiations between Australia and the EU still happen?
  • What should leaders keep in mind, as the terms of the withdrawal are negotiated?

Look out for more episodes in this series, as Corrs Partners consider the key issues which will affect the ways in which Australian firms and their networks do business.

We'll examine the challenges that will come with the changes, while also exploring the potential opportunities that might arise.

TRANSCRIPT

John Denton – Brexit

The challenge we have got now we are speaking about the implications of Brexit for the UK, for Europe, for the world and even more particularly for Australia is that no one is quite certain, okay, so let's be very clear about that. That there is a lot of speculation, there is a lot of confusion. In many respects that reflects very much the reality that in the actual debate on Brexit no one had done the hard yards on how the unwinding would actually occur and also no one has accepted hard yards on determining what a future relationship with Europe by the UK will actually look like. Without clarity over what kind of relationship the UK wants with the European Union. It is very unclear and it will remain unclear until that is actually crystallised as to whether or not we are going to be dealing with a Norwegian type engagement, a Swiss type engagement, and then of course one of the challenges that you will see is that the voice that the UK has had on moderating some of the positions within the European Union on financial services reform, on privacy reform, on data reform, on trade issues etc will be diminished because they will not be able to participate as full members in those discussions.

So therefore, there is a potential challenge for us in understanding what will all that mean. I am assuming, and this is an assumption, I acknowledge that, that the moderated view of the European Union will not be to punish the UK but to seek a sensible form of engagement post-Brexit but will be able to crystallise much better what those real challenges will be and frankly I do think the United States will play a role in this. And yet Australia can play a role in this as well in seeking to ensure that there is a level of comity that will exist between the UK and the UE and I think importantly just try and move away from any kind of emotional hostility to punish one or the other in this context as well. We had embarked upon a process to enable a free trade agreement with the European Union. People take a different view on this. My clear view is that it will be in our interest to do so and my clear view is [00:02:32] to be in interest of the European Union to do, so in many respects that process should continue and the level of focus may be intensified because that will need to be grappled with. How we deal with the UK well frankly that should not be such a complex issue for us. There is a lot of common interests, a lot of common opportunities.

So that you know we can bedazzle ourselves in paralyse ourselves with all these complex, this terrible thing might happen etc. In the end the job of the leadership of the country is it is with an organisation, is to forge a clear pathway.

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