(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors - N.America)
The UK did not "vote to turn inwards" when it backed Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May told the United Nations on Tuesday.
At the UN General Assembly in New York, she said the UK would not "walk away from our partners in the world".
While those words applied to troop commitments and foreign aid, it also has merit in the corporate world. The British premier has been busy canvassing leading Wall Street banks and other US companies over how Britain should structure its departure from the EU to reassure them that Brexit will not damage their UK business.
May met 'mostly' chief executives from the finance sector along with figures from the technology and entertainment sectors at the mid-town residence of the British consul-general in New York on Monday.
The first meeting was of a select group which included banks Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), as well as tech giant IBM (NYSE:IBM), and new economy distributor Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
A second meeting was with 60 US executives, as well as British businesses that invest in the US.
While Britain is going through a soul-searching inquiry into what a Brexit means for the nation, with economists assessing and re-assessing the near-term impact of leaving the European Union, there is also an urgency to bolster confidence in far flung places, especially among some of Britain's key trading partners, such as North America.
The last thing that Britain is seeking is misinformation to damage relations or to lessen confidence among American corporates.
Plus, there is evidence that things may have begun to creak in Britain even before the Juen 23 Brexit poll and that things could improve now that the poll is out of the way with a clear mandate.
For example, pre-EU referendum jitters caused a slump in the number of shops opening their doors, according to a biannual report monitoring vacancy rates on the UK high street. Shop closures outstripped openings by 1,997 from January to the end of June, according to the retail data firm Local Data Company.
But from has been reported of the New York visit by May so far, it sounds like very little prescriptive is being traded from Downing Street. Rather, it is a listening exercise for the British government to hear anxieties and views held in the US about Brexit and its possible impact on trading relations.
At this stage, May is keen not to trigger Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty until the first quarter of next year, after which the nation has two years to physically leave the EU.
But, apart from hearing the views of the British electorate, she also wants to hear the views of US firms in moulding a Brexit negotiations stance.
Perhaps not too creatively, US banks want a deal with the EU to be as close to the status quo as possible. They want to maintain 'passporting' rights, which allow them to use London as a base from which to access the single European market.
Meanwhile, Moody's the ratings agency, has suggested this week that UK banks, and possibly others in London too, will weather the loss of passporting which is a real risk as a payback for deserting the EU.
The reality, however, is that US businesses won't really know what to expect after Britain leaves the EU, possibly in 2019.
For, it is down to how well the talks between London and Brussels progress. Some EU officials are hostile to Britain's bold decision to shake up the EU by becoming the first nation to walk away – save Greenland in 1979 through independence of Denmark that is.
If talks sour May's visit may prove fairly irrelevant for trade. A healthy deal for Britain with the EU will also impact on the health of US businesses trading with both the UK and the EU.
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