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UPS CEO - Prompt resolution of British EU exit in interest of trade

By Nick Carey

ATLANTA (Reuters) - The United Kingdom's vote last week to exit the European Union should have little short-term impact on trade flows, as long as negotiations on the country's split with the trade bloc do not drag on too long, the top executive of UPS (UPS.N) said on Thursday.

"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," United Parcel Service Inc Chief Executive David Abney told Reuters in an interview at the company's Atlanta headquarters. "But if this thing gets long drawn out and real complicated, that never helps anything."

The CEO of the world's largest package delivery company said the referendum result will have no impact on UPS's five-year, $2 billion expansion in the EU, set to end in 2019, including investments in the UK. On a daily basis, UPS moves an estimated 2 percent of global gross domestic product in its network.

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"Hopefully this thing doesn't have any real effect on the overall economy," he said, "but we're just going to have to let things sort themselves out."

During the campaign ahead of the UK's June 23 referendum, UPS was one of many companies that argued that continued EU membership was in the country's economic interest.

Abney said that he believes the best opportunity for Congress to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the world's biggest multinational trade deals, will be during the lame-duck session after the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8.

Abney also said that during recent visits to China and Mexico he has heard concerns about the rhetoric on international trade that has come up frequently in both the Republican and Democratic campaigns for the U.S. presidency.

"There is a core group of Republicans and Democrats that support trade, and the present administration is pushing it," Abney said. "I can't put odds on it, but we remain optimistic that it will be discussed and we're going to give it our full support."

"The thing that's concerning is that other countries can take some of these things very literally and then they start to wonder if the U.S. values the relationship," he said. "So when I travel to China and Mexico do you hear concerns? You absolutely do."

Abney said that UPS's focus for this year's crucial pre-holiday peak season will be to work more closely with retailers to manage ecommerce flows. He said collaboration with customers was key to success ahead of Christmas 2015.

"This year we're going to increase that collaboration even more," he said. "We've got our systems connected to our customers even more and we've added capacity."

(Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)