FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's chemicals industry trade body has recommended that companies reconsider their investments in Britain in the face of possible customs duties and rule changes after the country leaves the European Union, German magazine Wirtschaftswoche reported.
"It is advisable that every company review its supply chains and ask itself whether they can remain as they are," Wirtschaftswoche reported Attila Gerhaeuser, head of chemical trade lobby VCI's European office, as saying.
A VCI policy paper said post-Brexit customs duties on chemicals and pharmaceuticals could cost Germany's chemicals sector around 200 million euros (178.09 million pounds) a year, it said.
New chemicals regulation or approval processes for pesticides could add further costs, Wirtschaftswoche reported.
Germany's chemicals industry, the economy's third-biggest sector, includes companies such as BASF (DE:BASFn), Bayer (DE:BAYGn) and Evonik (DE:EVKn) and exports chemicals worth around 12 billion euros a year to Britain.