David Abney, CEO of UPS has told Reuters that he hopes for a speedy resolution of the UK’s Brexit from Europe. He also said that the exit from the EU should have releatively little in the way of short term impact on trade flows, providing of course the negotiations do not become too protracted.

“If the government sorts things out in a way that’s considered reasonable in the minds of our shippers, then I believe it will have much less effect,” Abney was quoted as saying. “But if this thing gets long drawn out and real complicated, that never helps anything.”

The UPS CEO was also quoted as saying: “Hopefully this thing doesn’t have any real effect on the overall economy, but we’re just going to have to let things sort themselves out.”

Abney made it clear that the outcome of last Friday’s referendum would have no impact on UPS ’s plans to invest US $2 billion in the EU and UK. This programme is set to be complete in 2019, and is aimed at taking advantage of the rocketing trade brought about in part by e-commerce.

With Westminster engaging in a collective introspection for the rest of summer and into autumn, and the EU making it plain that there will be no negotiation until Article 50 has been declared by any UK leader, negotiations are not set to even begin for quite some time. When they do, there is some fear that the EU may play hardball to remind other Eurosceptic countries like the Netherlands of the problems of leaving the club. Should this be the case, the UK may be involved in a protracted war of attrition to achieve its aims.