Cannondale to treble European capacity with new assembly plant in the Netherlands

I agree - what a shame that having chosen to exit the world's largest tarriff-free trading block and give up all the attractions that has for international manufacturers the UK won't be able to benefit from such a global manufacturing shift.

Freeports should allow us to do exactly that.

They will not in any way - the OBR said just yesterday “We have assumed that the main effect of the freeports will be to alter the location rather than the volume of economic activity.” Freeports will allow goods to be temporarily imported without duty before being reshipped, please do explain why that would mean any manufacturer looking to relocate their manufacturing base from the Far East to Europe would choose the UK raher than a country in mainland Europe where they could ship their goods tarriff-free to any other member of the EU?

You've answered your own question Rendel.

Stick a factory in a Freeport area and you can ship your finished goods to the EU *and* the UK whilst only paying import duty once.

And yet for some reason Cannondale have chosen to go to the Netherlands, why do you think that might be? Anyone with a factory in the EU can ship their goods across the EU (population 445 million) without paying tarriffs at all and would only have to pay tarriffs for the UK (population 65 million). Which market do you reckon people will choose? Are Cannondale just stupid, or do you think their decision might indicate that they know which side the economic bread is buttered?

Even without the consideration of having tarriff-free acess to a 1000% larger market, any supposed benefits of freeports assumes that they will not be subject to challenges both under the terms of the Brexit agreement and WHO rules, both of which appear absolutely inevitable.

Are the UK Freeports operating yet Rendel?

The Cannondale factory will have to pay import tariffs on frames/groupsets etc *and* additional import tariff on any completed bikes sent to the UK.

UK GDP is about 18% of EU GDP so it's not an insignificant market by any stretch.

If the factory were in a Freeport then only the completed bike tariffs would be payable allowing a factory to serve both the UK *and* the EU competitively.

I'm not saying that all companies will choose to base themselves in a UK Freeport but it will allow us to take advantage of the expected increase in 'reshoring'.

The only contentious issue will be subsidies offered to companies operating within them, the actual Freeport concept is very well established and should produce no issues at WHO/EU level.