Did it say why the US economic advisor says that? Because at the moment doing business in the UK is almost identical to doing business elsewhere in the EU, because we are part of the EU and share the rules, regulations etc. There are three differences though - one is language (Americans are even worse than us at second languages,unless Spanish is their first language) the second is that it is much easier to lay workforce off here than in most other large EU countries (really difficult in France and Germany) and the third is relatively low corporation tax. Ireland shares these things with even lower corporation tax. Which is why many big US companies have their EU offices there and in some sectors (like mine) manufacturing has been vastly increased while a lot has been closed in the UK (still a lot of R&D here though).
Of course the biggest attraction that the UK (and Ireland) have beyond these three is that they are both part of the EU, the biggest market in the world. Surely the question the US Economic Advisor should be answering should be ‘once the UK has left the EU, will it be as attractive to do business there?’. And then we can ignore his response, as he is an expert and undoubtedly from the elite.
A weaker £ might also make us kind of attractive as costs will be lower for foreign investors, but of course any returns they make in £ will be worth less as well. It’s gone down a lot against the $ in the last week, which is a pisser because I’m going there next weekend for work.