Free ports can help rebalance the economy

North East Cluster 1: Tyne Port and Automotive Sector.

The Port of Tyne supports a total of 14,000 jobs in one of the country’s most deprived regions, providing the logistical backbone to the manufacturers who have helped make the North East the only English region with a consistently positive balance of trade.

In addition to serving customers including Hitachi, VW Group and Hoegh, the Port of Tyne has played a key role in one of the UK’s most notable manufacturing success stories: Nissan Sunderland. Producing a car every thirty seconds – 10,000 vehicles a week – Nissan Sunderland is reliant on the port for its export-focused manufacturing.
80% of the plant’s production is exported to over 130 countries globally, and around a third of the cars are destined for markets outside of Europe. In fact, Nissan Sunderland is the sole global supplier of the new Infiniti Q30 for the American and Chinese markets. The success of Nissan Sunderland has enabled it to employ 7,000 people with an estimated 27,000 supported jobs in the regional supply chain.ⁱⁱⁱ

As one former senior executive of Nissan International explained, the creation of FTZs in the Tyne Port area could be of crucial importance to retaining car manufacturing jobs post-Brexit:

“Manufacturers like Nissan need flexibility to go out and source