Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of Nissan, said: "The support and assurances of the UK government enabled us to decide that the next-generation Qashqai and X-Trail will be produced at Sunderland."

Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, Clark said that for carmakers in the UK and Europe: "The supply chain is integrated".

"Our objective would be to ensure we have continued access to markets in Europe and vice versa without tariffs and other bureaucratic impediments," he said. "That's how we will approach those negotiations."

Clive Lewis, Labour's shadow secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, said: "While we welcome the commitment to securing tariff-free trade for the automotive sector, Greg Clark has raised more questions than he's answered. What about other manufacturing sectors, or services, which, let's not forget, account for 90 percent of our economy? Nor has the government said anything about how is tariff-free access is going to be achieved.

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