Some 7,000 employees of car manufacturer Nissan Motor Manufacturing Ltd. are “at risk” of losing their jobs should the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) fail to strike a trade deal before the Brexit transition period ends.

According to a report by BBC, Nissan and UK’s largest car plant in Sunderland “will not be sustainable” due to expected tariffs on imports and exports and that its commitment could not be maintained if there was no tariff-free access to the EU.

“If it happens without any sustainable business case obviously it is not a question of Sunderland or not Sunderland, obviously our UK business will not be sustainable, that’s it,” Nissan’s chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta was quoted as saying in a report by Reuters and was picked up by BBC.

The company also warned that any delay in overseas supplies because of new customs checks could slow down the production of automobiles.

“We are the number one carmaker in the UK and we want to continue,” he said in an interview with BBC in June.

Nissan established its Sunderland plant in 1986 and was scheduled to manufacture new hybrid Qashqai cars which were to go on sale next year.

It was also ready to meet Britain’s revised plan to move up a ban on petrol and diesel cars to 2030 from its original timetable of 2035..

To recall, the bloc gave UK 10 more days to secure a trade deal with members of the EU beginning next year, with the transition period already ending on December 31.

Any trade between the two parties after the transition period would automatically adopt the rules of the World Trade Organization where both parties would have to subject each other’s goods to tariffs. This would result in higher costs for both consumers and companies.

Britain officially withdrew its membership with the EU on January 31 but will continue to follow the latter’s rules until the end of the year.

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